The Ancient Warrior
by Maroon Smoke
Summary: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. What happens when all 3 happen to one person?
1. Prolouge

**ANCIENT GREECE**

Gray eyes peered over a ledge. Men walked by, not even sparing them a glance, their bellies full of food and wine. The boy to whom these eyes belonged stood slightly. He swept his eyes throughout the entire room. There were a few men in close quarters. No one would dare trouble them, as they all had rippling muscles and weapons at their side. No one but Perseus. Perseus did things like this often. As long as he followed the voice's advice and he never got in trouble. He usually checked off his mental checklist first, the analyzed his situation. 1: Find all the potential exits and memorize them. 2: Attempt to use your mind to outsmart the enemy before trying to out power them. Now the final one, #3. It was the most important. 3: Pray to all the Gods of Olympus before beginning. He did so now, sending in an extra prayer to the goddess of the hunt, as she was also the goddess of virginity. Little did he know, all of the gods were sitting in the council, watching him intently. Silver eyes widened slightly as they received his prayer.

"Ey, Otremachus, you hea of that boy?" One of the men slurred. The man who seemed to be Otremachus shook his head. The man who had spoken to him laughed tantalizingly and put a hand on his shoulder. "E's a lad, 15 or 16. Cunnin as a snake and as powe-ful as a warrior! Poor lad got no parents- I would'n blame em if my 'un was like tha'!" The man snorted before groaning and falling forward. Everyone around him laughed. Everyone but Otremachus, the man he was after. He was the one that ran the slave business, and not the kind that works in the fields, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. This was the man who had slaughtered dozens of families all for their girls.

The gray eyes erupted in anger and he pulled out his bow and notched an arrow. His form and technique were flawless. _Not now, Perseus. You would not do well to fail the mission for such a trivial matter. This is your final mission, after this, I'll get to see you, but everyone else is watching as well, so you would do well to complete this mission perfectly_. Perseus immediately lowered his bow. He always followed the voice's advice. The voice was like a parent to him, as he had none of his own. It told him goodnight and good morning. It told him what he needed to do. Sometimes, the voice would sing to him at night, and he would wake up quickly, catching a glimpse of gray eyes like his own. He had not a clue who 'everyone' was, but they must be powerful to see him.

Perseus sized up the men. They would likely go easy on him as they thought he was a child, but that was not for sure. All of the men were drunk, so his mission was a little easier. While he was no pushover, Perseus doubted he had enough power to just overpower them. Looking around for anything he could potentially manipulate, he craned his neck up and saw the bags of grain laying on the terrace of a home nearby. Slowly, his mind formulated a plan.

He looked around him until he found a decent sized rock. He notched the rock and fired towards the bags. The stone ripped the bag slightly, and grain began to fall and pool on the ground. Next, he notched 3 arrows at the same time and held his bow sideways. He exhaled slowly and fired his arrows. There was a whizzing noise and then 3 thumps as 3 unsuspecting men fell to the ground. Just as Perseus had suspected, no one noticed.

3 men were down, 3 left to go. He leapt down from the ledge and silently pulled out a dagger. He threw it and the dagger impaled itself in someone's eyes, the poor man fell over on his sleeping comrade, who fell into the fire. That man roared in pain. His eyes rested on Perseus and he moved towards him with is sword drawn.

His sword cleaved through the air sideways. Perseus' eyes widened and he fell back and rolled, narrowly missing the blade. He grabbed for his sword, but realized it was behind the man.

"You don't want to do this. I'm sure we can work something out." Perseus said smoothly, not taking his eyes off his sword.

The man's sword lowered slightly. "Okay. Work something out, eh. I want all of the women in your family delivered to me," He licked his lips, and Perseus grimaced. He _hated_ these kind of people. The man hadn't noticed that Perseus had grabbed a handful of dirt. He threw it at the man's eyes and he backed up, furiously rubbing his eyes. Perseus grinned to himself and rushed over to pick up his sword. He picked it up and a few moments and a disgruntled scream later, there was a head rolling on the floor.

Perseus wiped his blade on the man's clothes. He had just deduced that Otremachus, his target, had woken up. He was proved right when there was a cry of 'What the Hades?!' Perseus made eye contact with his target and Otremachus' eyes widened. "Boo." Perseus said, and Otremachus took off like a horse being reared. He, unlike his guards, was extremely overweight and he was already huffing and puffing whereas Perseus wasn't even breathing hard as he ran after him. Thinking he had a chance to escape, Otremachus sprinted north. However, he ran blindly north, not taking a moment too survey his surroundings. Perseus smirked to himself. It was easy to trick men like Otremachus, because they thought of themselves as too powerful and clever to be bested by petty things. An example of why this ultimately brought death was given when Otremachus slipped on the grain that had pooled on the floor.

"P-please," Otremachus whimpered. He was on his knees, and his hands were clasped together tightly. His small, beady eyes looked frightfully at Perseus. "I'll give you _anything_."

Perseus bent down and gave Otremachus a look that would freeze over hell. "Your death seems like a fair price." He whispered, and Otremachus looked down to see a dagger sticking out of his chest. "May Hades have no mercy on your soul." He closed his eyes and kicked the body down.

Perseus walked over to Otremachus and checked his pockets for something. He found a gold dagger, exquisitely carved with designs of Lord Zeus throwing his bolt, and pictures of women. Perseus ran over to the building he was on, and then kicked the door down. Inside, there were 20 or so women.

"Fair maidens!" Perseus yelled to them, garnering the attention. "Those vile men have been taken care of. I suggest taking their weapons and going to your families. Have a blessed life, and _please_ do not presume to find me. I am only here to help. Good day." Perseus bowed and began to take off. Before he left, he dropped the dagger in the fire. _Thank you, my lords and ladies. With your help I was able to put down the hammer of justice._

 _You did well, Perseus._ Perseus' eyes widened. The voice never complimented him. _Thank you._ The voice spoke once more. _Close your eyes._

He did just that, and he heard a whooshing sound. When he opened his eyes, he was in front of a colossal palace. It seemed to reflect all light. Amazing smells of food and drinks assaulted Perseus' senses. From inside, sweet music played and there were sounds of conversation. He glanced for all entrances, but found only one. He was immediately on guard. There were many things in Greece that had appearances like this, but they simply lured unwitting men to their dooms. This, however, radiated power. Something that put Perseus on edge. He felt compelled to go somehow.

"That is because you are on Olympus, Perseus." Perseus turned to see a woman in a white gown. She had black air that was braided, and gray eyes like his. On her shoulder was an owl, and in her hand an olive branch. Perseus almost fainted. He dropped to one knee.

"My lady Athena." He said, surprised. Athena was his most favorite goddess. She represented what he cherished most; Cleverness and Battle. She placed one hand on his shoulder.

"I am sorry. I could not tell you earlier, but you are my son." Athena wrapped Perseus in a hug. He stiffened, but gradually sunk into his mother's embrace. Perseus' eyes widened in shock as he realized the true nature of this situation. "Shhh, my child." Athena caressed his hair. It made Perseus' body fill with warmth. "You did nothing wrong. You are here to speak with my father, Lord Zeus."

What did he want with him? It wouldn't do well to argue with the goddess of wisdom anyway. Shrugging to himself, Perseus followed his mother inside the room. There were huge pillars rising from the ground, framing a colossal chamber. Perseus looked on in awe. From the ground, there rose 12 thrones, each with a god or goddess on them.

"Perseus." The room grew quiet. Perseus' stomach dropped a little, but he gulped and walked forward. He knelt in front of Zeus, who sat in his throne while idly twirling his bolt. "Would you like some wine?" A goblet appeared in front of Perseus. He peered inside cautiously. The wine was a rich burgundy color and it gave off such a sweet aroma that Perseus wanted nothing more to do than drink it.

STOP! He yelled mentally. His hand had been drifting slowly towards it. He forced his eyes shut and opened them a few moments later. Step 23 of life: Never, _EVER_ except things from anyone. No matter who they are. "No thank you, my lord." Perseus said, although it was slightly strained.

"Bahahaha!" Zeus laughed heartily. He clutched his stomach and the loud thundering noise gradually stopped. "You are wise, young Perseus. Now to the matter at hand. You have done countless favors for the gods, and in return, we would like to make you a god."

Me? Perseus' eyes bulged. A god? Was this the right choice?

"Don't worry." Athena assured him. "This is the right choice. After this, you will be able to fight those people you so hate perish."

Perseus still stood still in thought. All though his brain was telling him to accept the offer, his instincts were yelling at him to decline and leave. While Perseus trusted his instincts, he generally sided with his mind. After all, instincts only know so much. Closing his eyes for a moment, he squared his shoulders. "I accept the offer, Lord Zeus."

"Good. Now simply close your eyes. You should feel a slight tingling and then a warm sensation will overtake your body. When you open your eyes, you will see the world in a new light. Go on now, close them." Zeus urged. Perseus complied and he did feel a tingly sensation. It steadily grew. Now Perseus was wincing with pain.

"What is happening?" Perseus could dimly hear Athena yell frantically. Perseus' insides felt like they were on fire. He was sure that his skin must be melting off. The pain was so unbearable that his mouth opened to yell, but no sound came out.

The pain abruptly came to an end. Perseus cautiously opened his eyes. The throne room was a muddle. Debris was scattered everywhere, and there were holes in the walls and ceiling. Each god stood with their respective aura around them. It was flared and stood in front of them like a wall. Perseus' head hurt, and when he looked down, his arm had an insignia on it. It looked like a swirl, but in the middle, there was a sword.

"My lord?" Perseus asked.

Zeus dropped his shield and stared at Perseus with a bewildered expression. "Athena, your son is more than just a god. He is an Olympian. He is the God of Sword fighting and the Hunt, and the patron of all women."

Perseus fainted.


	2. The Start of the Hunt

_Author's Note: Shout out to a guest reviewer named Ultor for giving me some of the domains. Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, I've been busy with school and sports, but now I'm making writing a bigger priority. A huge thank you to everyone who stuck with this story even when I didn't reply. I'll do my best to keep up a weekly or biweekly streak of uploading (rest assured, the other chapters_ will _be longer than this). Well, I guess that's all for now. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. Don't forget to tell me what you thought about this chapter so that I can make the next one even better for you guys. Until next time, Maroon._

When Perseus, awoke, he saw two women sitting next to his bedside. He was confused, until the events of the previous night came rushing into his head and he groaned.

Athena smiled down at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, milady." Perseus replied and sat up. His bright gray eyes swept all around the room, scanning for possible exits, possible entry points, what would work best in a fight…

"You do not trust Olympus?" The other woman said. She had a heart shaped face and full lips. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were shining and resembled a full moon.

"I was once told that it is best to be attentive. Ignorance is the curse of God, and knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." Perseus said as Athena looked on proudly. "It is not that I do not trust Olympus. It is that I do not trust anything."

"Good." Athena said. "Now, I do not want to startle you, but you missed some of your other domains. You are also the god of Hurricanes, Justice, and Valor."

Perseus looked down at his hands. He could feel power like he never before. It flowed from his core throughout his entire body. He could feel hurricanes all over the world. "Was this supposed to happen? Why did everyone put their shields up?"

Athena shifted uncomfortably. "You were supposed to be a god, but not this powerful. The power was too great to all go in at once, so it took time. During this time, the power was ripping apart the throne room. We had to protect ourselves. Also, two gods sharing a domain is almost unheard of. In fact, this is why I have brought Lady Artemis. Lord Zeus has told us that you and she are to form a group of hunters, all female, who have been wronged by men."

Artemis looked very uncomfortable. "I already have some. They do not take kindly to men."

"Then why am I going there?" Perseus asked.

Athena patted his arm. "You do not remember? You were also named the Patron of Women."

Perseus got up and stretched. He actually felt his back crack and muscles grow warm like he'd been asleep for years. Artemis and Athena also rose, and Athena patted his cheek. "Goodbye son, make me proud." She disappeared.

Artemis wrinkled her nose at Perseus like she'd smelled something horrible. "The last thing I want to do is work with a _man_ , but you are different. Do not make me regret saying that."

Perseus bowed his head. "I won't. Now, where are we headed?"

"Ephesus. My temple there is a safe haven for women, but I fear that men are on the steps. They will tear it down if we do not hurry. Quick, grab my arm." Perseus grabbed Artemis' arm and they disappeared with a flash.

Perseus reappeared on the steps of a large temple, and sure enough, there were men lining the bottom. With a second look, he noticed that the entire male population of the town was there, holding pitchforks.

He looked at Artemis, who was steadily glaring at the men. A beefy man with a huge belly strode forward. "You!" he raised a shaking finger at Artemis. "Let us up there so we can kill those whores!"

Artemis threw a dagger so quickly that even Perseus had trouble seeing it. A moment later, that man was laying on the steps, gurgling blood. "Any of you pigs want to sample a taste as well?"

See, Perseus had seen two sides to Artemis so far. One was the cold and royal princess he'd met earlier, but now, he was seeing something scarier. It was the angry Artemis. Her eyes were literal balls of fire, and her veins were beginning to grow gold against her pale skin.

Perseus lightly touched her arm, and her head whipped around. "My lady, how about you check on the maidens? I will handle this." He said, trying to stop her before she reduced the city to a dirt mark.

Artemis actually calmed a bit. "That is acceptable." She ran up the steps, leaving Perseus alone with the men.

Another man stepped forward. "So how about you let us past, eh? We both know you only want to bed the goddess, so why not let us get our whores back?"

Perseus felt anger course through his veins. How _dare_ someone suggest that he would try to bed a maiden goddess! "Turn back, fool, or I will make you regret it."

"Ha." The man spat on the ground in front of Perseus. "Worthless."

 _Well, I warned him,_ Perseus thought before he waved his hand in front of the steps. Every single man was forcefully pulled back to in front of the steps, and then they found themselves incapable of moving.

"Perseus!" Artemis called from the top of the temple, and Perseus looked back at the men one more time before running to the peak.

"Yes my…Zeus." There were literal hordes of young women, some crying and hugging, and others glaring malevolently at the ground. Perseus felt something tugging in his gut and he released it. Immediately, all of the women seemed to relax and stop crying. The ones glaring at the ground looked up.

Artemis looked at him with something akin to gratitude. "How shall we assemble them?"

His brain had already started working on this matter since they had arrived, thanks to his godly lineage. "How about…we have them swear off of loving men in a romantic way for all eternity. That way, they can still love their fathers and brothers if they so wish, and they are bound to you by their oath."

"Good." Artemis raised her voice. "Listen. All of you have been wronged by men. Be it rape, broken promises, abuse…you have been wronged. We, as in my friend"-she said friend as if it burned her mouth-"wish to save you. To protect you, and give you a family of kind, and understanding people. For this however, you must swear an oath of chastity, to I, your goddess Artemis, for all eternity."

Perseus would be lying if he said he wasn't shocked when not a single woman got up to leave. One by one, they made their oath, and Artemis grabbed Perseus and they all teleported to a large and grassy field.

"Now, my friend and I will give you our blessings. Mine will help you be faster and stronger, not to mention give you partial immortality. My friend's will likely just enhance the effect." Artemis said.

A little girl raised her hand. She had silky brown hair and soft green eyes, but her left eye was swollen shut and her cheek was bruised. "My lady, why is there a man here?"

Artemis pursed her lips, like she'd been hoping to dodge that question for as long as possible. "This is a new god, Perseus. He is the god of the Hunt, and patron to all women. It is only right that he watches over us." She sounded like disagreed, but managed to keep her tone from shaking.

The girl dropped to her knee, but Perseus touched her shoulder and pulled her up. He softly touched her cheek, and his fingers glowed. The bruise slowly faded. Next, he gently touched her eye, and the swelling reduced until it was nonexistent.

"Don't bow to me. Any of you." Perseus said kindly, but sternly. He smiled at the little girl. "What is your name, little one?"

"Chloe." The little girl replied while blushing. Perseus knew she wasn't blushing because she found him handsome; she was far too young for that.

"Well, Chloe, you're a bit too young for Lady Artemis' blessing. You don't want to be this young forever now, do you?" She shyly shook her head. "Well, until then, you can have mine. That way you can still stay with us and hunt, but you won't stop aging for a bit. How about that?"

Perseus touched her shoulder, and it glowed blue for a moment, before she stepped back. Artemis cleared her throat, "If you would start a line here."

And that was the start of the Hunt.

 _Author's Note 2: Yes, I'm aware Chloe isn't a traditional Greek name, but hey, I like it so that's what we're going with. Bye again._


	3. Zoe

_Author's Note: So this will be the last background chapter of the story, and next time we'll hop right into the main part. And don't worry if you wanted to see more of the whole "Ancient" aspect, there will be flashbacks. But, in the next chapter, you can expect to see Perseus figuring out what to do next. Thanks to everyone who faved and followed! Hope you like it._

Perseus had retired for the night. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with Artemis and her maidens-oh wait-that was exactly it. He didn't have anything against her, or any of the girls, but it was beginning to be too much for him to handle in one day.

So now, he was in his tent, polishing a sparkling sword and sharpening pointy arrows. It was the dead of night. There wasn't a single sound in the night, but he heard it. The soft noise of a creek, in the middle of nowhere.

Standing silently, he slung his bow over his shoulder and strapped on his daggers. First, he parted his tent to look outside Nope. Nothing. Perseus slowly got out and combat rolled behind a tree. The sound was coming a few yards down, he deduced.

Perseus scaled up a tree and hopped from branch to branch towards the sound. Being up high gave him the advantage, though he probably wouldn't need it as he was a god now. As he got closer and closer, he felt his stomach churn. Whatever was here, it put him on edge.

Sure enough, there was a flowing creek that he hadn't noticed before. Perseus almost didn't believe his eyes, until he saw what looked like a man sitting on a log. He had long, wavy black hair and a scruffy beard. He wore no shirt, but his lower body was covered in swimming clothes. Beside him laid a ten foot long bronze cylinder with three prongs poking out, each pulsing with greenish energy.

"Poseidon." Perseus breathed.

"Come down." Poseidon said quietly, and Perseus leapt off the branch and knelt in front of Poseidon. "Humph. Sit."

Perseus cautiously took a seat next to him. Poseidon raised an eyebrow at his tentativeness. "Don't trust the Gods, eh, boy?"

"It never hurt anyone to be safe." Perseus argued.

Poseidon turned to look at Perseus. His sea green eyes shone with emotions that Perseus couldn't decipher. Hope? Longing? Regret? He took a deep breath and looked towards the creek. "Tell me, what is the strongest substance in the world?"

Perseus thought for a moment. "Air?"

"No", Poseidon said as he pointed to the creek. "It is water."

Poseidon stood up and gestured to a rock in the middle of the creek. "Water does not ever stop flowing. You can put something in its path. You can restrict its movement. You can try to stop it, but, the very fact of the matter is that you cannot, and will not stop it. If you put something in front of it, it will erode it away. Simply put, nothing can stop water."

"Tell me, Perseus, do you know anything of your father?" Poseidon asked quietly.

"No sir", Perseus replied. "I was raised by my grandmother until she died. I am led to believe he died in a bloody battle."

"Yes, he did", Poseidon scratched his beard. "Your father, Anidiotelís, was the hero of the battle near Athens. He saved his entire squadron of men by giving his life. Almost unbeatable with a sword and well versed in the art of battle, he had caught Athena's eye many years before."

"Sir", Perseus began. "Why are you telling me this?"

Either Poseidon didn't hear Perseus, or he didn't care. "Anidiotelís made his final stand in the sea. Despite being drained from hours of battle and injured by arrows and knives, he still fended off one hundred men all on his own until the catapults decimated their ships."

Perseus sat, absorbing the information he was given. "Did you say…in the water?"

"What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea." Poseidon said. "I was his father. I _am_ your grandfather."

"Doesn't mother have a rivalry with you? Why in the good name of Zeus would she have a child with one of yours?" Perseus asked. The tale of how Athens got its name was well-known.

"Even the goddess of the wisdom does not know it all." Poseidon smiled, and Perseus saw his eyes crinkle. "It was quite the surprise when Athena brought you to Olympus, and even more so when you became an Olympian. I've missed Anidiotelís terribly over the years, but gods must not interfere with their children, it is a law. Now since you were here, I was hoping I could repent by being close to you."

"I would like that." Perseus smiled.

Poseidon smiled as well, and he clapped Perseus on the back. "Should you ever need anything, you know where to find me." The lord of the sea disappeared in a pleasant ocean breeze.

For the next year, Perseus would go down there every day and speak with Poseidon. A lot had happened over this year. The hunt had grown exponentially. Perseus and Artemis had gotten closer, once she'd realized he wasn't like everyone else. Very close, if you catch my drift.

"Perseus!" Artemis called and ran down the path. "What is it you are doing up this early?"

"I could ask the same to you, Lady Artemis", Perseus countered.

Artemis glared. "Gods don't need sleep, boy."

"Well, in that case, I do believe you've answered your own question." Perseus replied, before adding, "My lady."

Her expression softened. "Perseus, please. I'm worried about you. You come down here every single day."

Suddenly, Perseus swayed. His vision was burning, and he saw a man and woman, and the man took a hair pin from the woman and went to fight a huge beast. "Wait, that's…"

"Perseus?" Artemis asked, but Perseus disappeared with a thunderous crack.

Perseus didn't know where he was, but he felt his heart thumping a million miles an hour. Something was about to happen. He heard voices, and he looked and saw a man wearing a tunic, a pelt, and leather sandals run across the lawn with a girl in a silk dress.

He couldn't place where he was. This could have existed anywhere in Greece, with its dozens of different flowers and peaceful little creeks. "Hurry!" the girl said. It was too dark to see her face clearly, but Perseus could hear the fear in her voice. "He will find us!"

"I'm not afraid," the man said with an air of arrogance. "I have bested a thousand monsters with my bare hands."

"Not this one," the girl said. "Ladon is too strong. You must go around, up the mountain to my father. It is the only way." Hurt was palpable in her voice. She cared for the man.

The pelt seemed to register in Perseus' mind. It was of the Nemean Lion, which meant that not only was the man Heracles, but every single god on Olympus right now was watching him.

"I don't trust your father." Heracles said.

"You should not," the girl agreed. "You will have to trick him. But you cannot take the prize directly. You will die."

Heracles chuckled. "Then why don't you help me, pretty one?" Perseus saw right through his voice. This would not end well.

"I… I am afraid. Ladon will stop me. My sisters, if they found out… they would disown me."

Heracles made a growling noise and got up. "Then I'll do it myself."

The girl pulled him down. She seemed to be agonizing over a decision. Then, her fingers trembling, she reached up and plucked a long white brooch from her hair. "If you must fight, take this. My mother, Pleione, gave it to me. She was a daughter of the ocean, and the ocean's power is within it. My immortal power."

The girl breathed on the pin and it glowed faintly. It gleamed in the starlight like polished abalone. "Take it," she told Heracles. "And make of it a weapon."

Heracles grabbed it, and it turned into a long sword. "I don't usually use a blade."

"You insist on being stubborn." The girl said sadly. "Go." Heracles smiled and vaulted over the bush and ran up the hill.

A few minutes later, Heracles was running down the hill with a golden apple, looking smug. The girl stood, "Let us go."

However, Heracles just smirked and kept running.

The girl fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Perseus felt a sharp drop in his gut.

Perseus had seen enough, and was bubbling with anger. Large gray storm clouds gathered overhead, and the winds picked up. Heracles suddenly found that the apple was ripped from him, and right into the water, where it was encased in ice, before it shattered.

"Who dare"- Heracles began but Perseus smashed his fist into his face with so much force that his entire bottom row of teeth shattered and there was a large cracking noise. Heracles staggered backwards, but Perseus caught him by the collar and smashed his head into his nose, and Heracles's nose burst with blood.

"Who are you?" Heracles said in broken English, as he was missing teeth and his nose was crushed.

"Your worst nightmare moral. I'm the Patron of all women, and I'm going to light you up." Perseus kicked Heracles into the air and flung him into a nearby tree. Godly energy crackled around him, and he raised his arms. Heracles screamed in pain, and his sword impaled itself inside his upper thigh.

Perseus walked up to him and ripped off the hide and blasted it out of existence. He started wailing on him, punch after punch, and kick after kick, until he was blasted off by a surge of lightning.

As he looked to see what happened, he saw all of the Olympians standing there. Zeus had his bolt raised, his eyes burning with anger. "Perseus! What is the meaning of this?"

"This bastard," Perseus brought his heel down on Heracles' face. "Was going to leave this girl to be destroyed. She gave up her immortality for him, and he threw it back in her face."

Artemis was smiling at him along with Hera and Athena. Poseidon's face was purple from trying not to laugh.

Zeus roared. "That does not mean you can assault my son! He is a hero! You know what, I have had it with you!"

Perseus blinked. "What?"

"You, are hereby _banned_ from Olympus." Zeus said with a crazy grin. "Oh yes."

"Father!" Athena and Artemis both yelled.

"Brother!" Poseidon roared.

"Please Father, it's my son. He's done nothing wrong." Athena tried to argue, but Zeus raised a hand.

"I am king." He said forcefully, raising his bolt shakenly at the rest of the gods. "And I say he goes."

All of the gods started to argue, but Perseus just shook his head. "No, I'll go."

Perseus walked up to the girl, who looked at him fearfully. "It's okay. What's your name?"

"Z-Zoe." She whispered.

"I saw what Heracles did." Perseus said distastefully. "Luckily, I'm a sea god too. I can give you your immortality back."

Zeus yelled. "She is a threat to Olympus! Her mother is a Titan! I ought to strike her down now just to teach you a lesson!"

Perseus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He touched Zoe's shoulder, and she glowed blue for a moment before it died. "If you, _any of you_ , touch my _daughter_ , I swear on the River Styx that there will be no fortress that will keep you from me."

Thunder rumbled overhead, sealing the promise. "I may be gone, but I'll never be truly gone until everyone has given up on me. We'll meet again, and you'll apologize."

Artemis looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Perseus, the hunt…I can't lead them myself."

"Yes, you can," Perseus gently said. He looked back at the girl. "Add her in, too. Give her a family. Make her your leader or something, she's got my powers now."

She raised a hand to Perseus' cheek. "Please…"

Perseus kissed her cheek. "Goodbye, Artemis. Goodbye, mother. Goodbye, grandfather." Before anyone could react, he was gone with a flash.


	4. The Dawnbringer

_Author's Note: Thanks again for reviewing and I am aware that Zoe's dad is the Titan and not her mom, but I'm really lazy so I won't change it_ _Well, hope you guys like it. And every God has a nickname right? Like Poseidon is the Earthshaker. Here is how Perseus gains his._

Perseus' first thought was to leave Greece and explore the world like he'd wanted to for years. There were great cities and empires being forged around the world, and he'd been given eternal life. However, now, he was sitting at the base of Athena's temple in Athens, weighing his options.

On one hand, he wanted to leave. Yet, something was holding him back. "Young man," An elderly woman said to him kindly. "One only thinks that hard when they've lost something they love or when they're planning to destroy a city. Which is it?"

Perseus smiled at her. "Nothing, I was just…kicked from home, I suppose you can say."

The old woman placed a hand on his shoulder. "Come, young man. I have a home that I live in all on my own. I have a room to spare. I am Cressida."

"I couldn't possible intrude like that."

Cressida looked away sadly. "I would love for you to come. My husband died many years ago, and my son has gone away on a voyage. An old woman needs company once in a while."

"Okay, I will stay with you until your son comes home. I am Perseus." Perseus stood up and picked up her basket of bread. "Lead on, miss."

On the way there, Cressida told Perseus a little bit about her life. Being a god, Perseus could obviously verify that she was telling the truth. Cressida and her husband lived together for a long time. Cressida shyly told Perseus of how she was quite the looker back in the day, and her husband and she met while she was serving warriors who had come back from a battle.

" _His eyes were gorgeous," she told Perseus. "And when we looked into each other's eyes, I felt something warm blossom in my heart, and I knew. He was the one."_

But suddenly, 5 years ago, he had disappeared. A few days later, his body was found, hanging from a tree, with a note on it that said 'It is done.' Cressida was tearing up at this part, so Perseus assured her it was okay to stop talking.

Finally, they had reached Cressida's home. It was smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood that stretched on for a few miles, so Perseus felt a little bit of relief that she wasn't too isolated. It wasn't anything too fancy, a simple one story home with two windows and a door.

The inside was cozy. There was a crackling fireplace in the wall, and there were rugs all over the floor. Two cushiony chairs surrounded a small rock table. There were portraits on the wall, and Cressida pointed to each one and explained who it was.

"Your room is here," Cressida gestured to the room right in front of hers. There wasn't too much inside of it, just a bed and a bedside table.

"Thank you." Perseus said gratefully. He would use this time to plan out his next move.

"Goodnight." Cressida said and smiled at him before walking towards her bedroom.

Suddenly, the bed opened and Perseus fell through the hole. A few moments later, he landed on a cushion. Wherever he was, the room was covered in maps with X's and daggers on them, books half open, and a note pinned to the wall. Perseus picked it up and read it.

 _Dear Traveler,_

 _If you are reading this, it means I have passed on. I have urged Cressida that in that case, she should seek out travelers and let the sleep in this room. When there is a traveler whose heart is pure, and who wishes for nothing more than to help my dear Cressida, they will be brought here. Now, to the matter at hand. I am currently being hunted by an organization who wants to plunge our beloved home into an eternal darkness. I have made several offerings to my lord Apollo, but have not received any message in return. You see, I myself am a son of Apollo, which is why I am being hunted by these people. The worst part is that my own son is one of these people. Tomorrow, I will give my life as an offering to my father in order to halt their efforts for a few years. But from you I ask one thing. Kill my son. As of now, he is an assistant to the leader, but that backstabbing bastard will become leader soon. All of their power is with him, as it takes a descendant of Apollo to activate the arrow that causes the sun to blast away from Earth. Good luck. And thank you._

Perseus climbed back up the hole and the bed closed itself up. Zeus, Perseus thought. The man was a real hero. He gave up his own life just to slow down his own son.

The next morning, Perseus heard a knock at the door. Cressida got up and opened the door. "Aniello!"

A stocky man with a scruffy beard and long hair laughed heartily and hugged Cressida. "Mother!"

Cressida's eyes were shining with happiness. "Come in, come in. I've missed you so much!"

Aniello smiled and reached into his pocket and withdrew a pearl necklace. "During my travels, I saw this and thought you'd like it, mother."

"Oh son, I love it!" Cressida said and Aniello put it on her.

This was the man who wanted to plunge Greece into eternal darkness? The backstabbing bastard? Perseus was beginning to doubt what Cressida's late husband had said. Cressida gestured for Perseus to come closer. "Aniello, this is Perseus. He was kicked from home and he said he'd stay with me until you came home, isn't that sweet?"

Aniello and Perseus shook hands. For a man a head shorter than Perseus, he had a surprisingly strong grip. Perseus felt unexplainably cold when he and Aniello made eye contact.

"Ah, so you took care of my mother while I was gone, eh? You have my thanks." He said with a frosty smile.

"Oh no, I arrived yesterday." Perseus said.

"You still have my thanks. Ever since father died, I've been horribly worried about her," Aniello sent a sad smile in Cressida's direction. "But it was okay. He would be proud if what I've done."

Okay, something was definitely wrong. Cressida squeezed Perseus' shoulder. "Thank you for staying with me, even if for a day. I won't keep you any longer."

Perseus couldn't bring himself to kill Aniello. There just wasn't enough evidence to justify slaughtering him just because a note told him to. "Of course, Cressida. I'll show myself the door."

Yet, later, Perseus was laying on a tree branch and playing with a dagger when he saw 12 flashes. He got up and looked below him, and saw that the Olympians were right there!

Zeus sighed. "I fear we are too late. Apollo?"

Perseus had only seen Apollo once or twice, and that had been more than enough for him. Apollo was far too cocky for his own good, and he went around doing horrible things with women and leaving them be. More than half the hunt had been involved with Apollo in some way, shape, or form.

"He will do it tonight." Apollo said. "My chariot has already stopped responding to my commands. I fear we do not have much time."

Artemis snorted. "Maybe if you were not busy finding your next woman you could've stopped this before."

All the goddesses in the circle snorted. Apollo glared at them all angrily. "It is not my fault. Once he finishes the spell, the chariot will take off. It will be impossible for even _I_ to catch it."

"Why?" Hera asked. "Surely you would be able to capture it. It is, in fact, _your_ chariot."

Zeus slammed his foot down, and Perseus was reminded why he was king of the gods. A huge wall of power caused Hera to stop talking. "Enough. If we find this man, kill him on sight. If not, well, consider the fact that Greece shall be plunged into eternal darkness."

"All because Apollo could not resist making a bet with a barkeeper." Demeter spat. "Brother, see to it that your son is brought under control, or I will."

And just like that, they were gone.

 _At least I have some time to find out what to do_. As if Fate was laughing at him, Perseus noticed that the sun had begun to move away at an alarmingly fast rate.

"Hades," Perseus swore. He jumped off the branch and ran to Cressida's house. With a large slam, he knocked the door off its hinges. "Cressida? Cressida!?" He called.

As he looked around the room, his heart froze. Hanging from the wall by her wrists was Cressida, with a dagger through her heart. As Perseus got angrier and angrier, the air around him began to ripple. He was seeing red. Cressida, the woman that welcomed a stranger into her home and gave him a place to rest. Cressida, the kind old lady. Aniello would pay.

The moment that Aniello opened the door, he was slammed into a wall by a thunderous punch. As he looked to see who hit him, he felt his ribs break with a kick that sent him stumbling back. To cap it off, he was blasted in the chest with a lance of godly energy that speared him to the wall. "What?" He croaked, his eyes lidded with pain.

"You bastard." Perseus snarled. "Your mother _and_ your father. What compelled you to do such a thing?"

Aniello grinned, his teeth broken. "The world will be plunged into eternal darkness. I shall surely be rewarded for this!"

"By who?" Perseus demanded. "Who are you working for?"

"No one," Aniello said. "But surely there is some god waiting for a moment just like this."

"The spell, did you complete it?"

Aniello coughed up blood. "Look out the window, you fool. It's over."

Sure enough, the sun was getting farther and farther away from Earth. Aniello laughed. "The time is now. There is no way to grab it back, not unless you grab it and bring it down yourself."

Perseus stopped. "What?"

"I said, 'The time is now. There is no way to grab it back, not unless you grab it and bring it down yourself'. It's true. But you aren't a god. No mere demigod could do that." Aniello shrugged. "Even if you _were_ a god, it would be all but suicide."

Perseus ran outside. His time was running low, as the sun was merely an orb in the distance. Summoning his power over hurricanes, he felt the winds pick up. His feet lifted off the ground. _Come on, come on_ Perseus thought, and he shot forward.

At this point, Perseus was flying so fast that his eyes were watering, but the sun kept getting closer and closer. It was flickering between a chariot and the sun, and the closer Perseus got, the warmer it got. It was almost blinding to look at.

 _No…no..._ Perseus felt his eyes sear and his arms burn. He latched onto the chariot, and he felt his skin sizzle. Every pore of Perseus' skin was screaming for him to let go. His grip loosened, and the chariot tugged, trying to break free.

Perseus thought of what Aniello said. He would have to drag it down to Earth himself. Mustering all of his strength, he pulled back towards the Earth. As he got closer, Perseus realized that his entire left arm was gone. All that was left was the bone. Trying not to gag, he kept pulling.

When he got closer, he saw what Greece looked like. Without the sun, everything was black and white. There was no color, no warmth. Monsters threatened to crawl out of shadows. Perseus could feel the hope going away and the despair rising.

"Apollo! Come forth!" Perseus croaked.

 _Come….on…_ Perseus heaved the chariot over his shoulder with a mighty grunt. The wheel instantly heated his flesh. Apollo flashed next to hm. "WHO DARE- Perseus?"

"Next time," Perseus spat, his body burning. "Take care of your damn chariot." Apollo bowed his hand and took the chariot. Gradually, color started to swim back into the Earth. The monsters all melted. People looked outside of their homes.

A priest looked up to the sky. As he saw the exchange before Apollo and the mysterious floating man, he bowed. He could feel the power emanating from the being that resembled a half alive corpse.

In his heart, he knew that this man had saved the world.

He knew that he had brought back dawn to push back the darkness.

Standing to his feet, the priest signaled for the bells to be rung. All over Greece, new status would be built. Dozens of shrines, thousands of statues would rise, all due to one sentence.

"All hail Perseus, the Dawnbringer!"


	5. The Return

**AN: I probably owe you all an apology for this horrible chapter, but hear me out.**

 **For this writing class I'm taking, my teacher absolutely hates what she calls "fluff". This refers to any words she deems "extra" and "unnecessary", so practically the exact opposite of how I try to write here. So I'm sorry if this seems a bit lacking, but I've had to drastically change my writing style to scrape by in that class.**

 _ **And**_ **this is what some would call a "filler chapter". This is just the tune up for the main problem in the story. Stay tuned, and I'm sorry again.**

LAST TIME

 _A priest looked up to the sky. As he saw the exchange before Apollo and the mysterious floating man, he bowed. He could feel the power emanating from the being that resembled a half alive corpse._

 _In his heart, he knew that this man had saved the world._

 _He knew that he had brought back dawn to push back the darkness._

 _Standing to his feet, the priest signaled for the bells to be rung. All over Greece, new status would be built. Dozens of shrines, thousands of statues would rise, all due to one sentence._

 _"All hail Perseus, the Dawnbringer!"_

THIS TIME

"What in the _world_ could have possessed you to do such a thing?!" Artemis yelled as Perseus hobbled into the hunters' camp.

"Artemis, I understand that you are angry"-

"Angry? _Angry_?" A slight glow was starting to shine from under Artemis. "Perseus, I'm beyond angry. I am _furious_."

Perseus laid a hand on her shoulder. It was a weird feeling for sure, considering most of his arm was a disorganized mess of bones and muscle.

"Look, I did what I thought was necessary." Perseus defended. "Granted, it was a very stupid thing, considering my chances of survival were only 15%"-

Artemis crossed her arms. "You're a god. You can't die."

"Well, there was an 85% chance I would be forced to reform." Perseus amended. "But, as my mother taught me long ago, a very slim chance is better than none at all."

"Perseus...look at you…" Artemis said softly, her voice cracking a bit. "Your body resembles that of a corpse."

Perseus winced. "Right, but I think some things are worth looking like a corpse for."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes, there are." Perseus said. Two flashes appeared as he finished talking, snapping the two immortals out of their awkward flirting.

"Son!" Athena said and walked over to him quickly. "What were you thinking?"

Poseidon followed closely behind and Perseus saw the relief evident in his eyes.

"I couldn't just let Apollo' foolishness spell doom for the world." Perseus muttered.

Athena pursed her lips. "I can't say that I'm not glad you got the chariot back but couldn't you have at least asked for help?"

"Athena, he's banned from Olympus." Poseidon reminded. "He technically shouldn't even be here right now."

"Correct." Perseus said with a nod towards his grandfather.

"Then why are you here?" Artemis said suspiciously.

"Well, I needed lots of nectar and I know that you always have a bunch saved up."

"There's more to that isn't there? You could heal yourself in mere moments by stepping in water." Athena asked knowingly. "You have my mind, son. You're here to see the girl aren't you?"

Perseus shrugged. "I am not sure I know what you're talking about."

Poseidon grinned. "Step in water first. You don't want to give the poor girl a heart attack."

Artemis sighed as she caught on. "She's in my tent." She said with a hidden smirk that only Athena caught.

Perseus nodded and walked to the water where he used to talk with Poseidon every morning. As he stepped inside, Perseus let out a small exhale.

All of the muscle and bone was beginning to be covered in skin, and the scarring in his face and arms was melting back into his skin.

A few moments later, Perseus stepped out of the water. He felt weak and each step required tremendous effort, but he persisted nonetheless.

Perseus probably wouldn't heal for a while. The damage that his body had taken likely would've forced him to reform if he had endured it any longer.

Thankfully, he hadn't.

As Perseus entered the camp, he quickly went into Artemis' cabin before any of the other huntresses saw him.

 _Wham!_

Perseus was swept off his feet and sent to the ground. A moment later, there was a bronze dagger against his neck.

"Who dares- Perseus?" Perseus heard as he looked to his right.

A now 10 year old Chloe stood above him. She'd grown about a foot in height and her brown hair had been cut short so that she could aim her bow better.

Perseus got up painfully. "Nice move. Although, if I was 100% you wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Remember"-

"Less power, more technique." Chloe said in a bored tone, indicated that Perseus had told her this many times before. However, her eyes betrayed her happiness. "What are you doing here? Lady Artemis said you were banned."

"I am." Perseus admitted. "But I came to see my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Chloe asked. "Oh Zeus! Phoebe was right! You and Lady Artemis _are_ in love! You even had a baby!"

"No, no, no." Perseus said quickly, his face burning. "My _adopted_ daughter. Lady Artemis, as you know, is a maiden goddess."

Chloe just smirked. "She's asleep. Does she need to be awake?"

"I just need to see her once. Then, well I should go. I _am_ banned." Perseus said, keeping the sadness in his tone to a minimum.

Chloe frowned. "Please don't go. We could fight. The Hunt loves you. We wouldn't let Zeus do this."

Perseus released the small tug in his gut, and Chloe stopped frowning. "We could beat him. Your domain is hunting swordsmanship, for Zeus' sake."

"And how many of you would get hurt?" Perseus countered. "One lightning bolt from his bolt could obliterate this camp. Poseidon, my mother, Artemis would all get hurt or branded as traitors. I am not selfish enough to stay here when I know the pain it would cause. No, its better I go."

Chloe's bottom lip was trembling. "Perseus…what about the hunt? You're our patron. We _need_ you."

Perseus shook his head. "Chloe, you've never needed me. None of you. All you've needed was to realize how strong you were, and you have. That's all I could ask for."

Chloe ran forward and wrapped her arms around Perseus. "Please don't go!" She sobbed into him.

Perseus sadly patted her head. "This is the way it has to be."

Chloe's body was shaking. "Please…"

Perseus pulled away and wiped away some of the tears rolling down her face. "I won't fade, if that was something you were worried about. As long as you and the hunt remember me, I will stay like this. Perhaps one day in the future when Olympus needs me I will return."

"We need you _now!_ " Chloe argued. "Who will bless all of the new recruits? What happens when I need you?"

Perseus shook his head. "I'll be there. I swear upon the Styx." Lightning crackled overhead, and the promise was made.

Little did they know, this promise would change the tide of history.

Perseus smiled at Chloe sadly. "Now come on, Chloe. I don't have long before Zeus comes down."

She nodded sadly and started to leave the tent. She stopped before she got out. "Thank you, Perseus. For everything. The hunt will remember you, I will make sure of that."

Perseus nodded solemnly. "Shoot straight, Chloe."

"Always." The tent flap closed.

Perseus entered the room where Zoe was sleeping.

She looked almost identical to when Perseus had last seen her, with a couple differences.

Her facial structure had been rearranged a bit, so her cheekbones were higher and more prominent and her nose was more aristocratic.

Zoe's hair had gone from being midnight black to a lighter shade of black that was almost brown.

The moment Perseus sat down next to her, Zoe's eyes opened. Now, they were a dull grey, identical to the eyes that Perseus and Athena had.

"I am sorry." Was the first thing that Zoe said.

Perseus' brow furrowed. "Sorry? Zoe Nightshade, you have nothing to apologize for. Rather, I'm the sorry one. I'll be leaving you without a father for a long time."

"But I'm the reason why. You're banned because of me." Zoe said sadly. Perseus saw tears leak out of her eyes.

"It's okay. Honestly. I'd do it a million times again without a thought. Now listen, I just wanted to be here to tell you that you have more power in your body than before. I'm an Olympian, and so was my mother before me." Perseus explained, playing around with an arrow he found. "I am guessing you'll become proficient with a number of weapons, so Artemis can help you there."

"Lady Artemis? Why would she help me? I am a Titan."

"So is her mother, remember?" Perseus countered. "That is, if you choose to stay with the hunt. I'd appreciate if you did, because they'll need some help around here with me gone."

Zoe wiped her eyes. "I do not know yet."

"That's alright," Perseus smiled reassuringly. "Do what you want."

Lightning rumbled across the sky, and heavy rain started falling outside of the tent. Perseus shifted uncomfortably. "That's my cue. Goodbye, Zoe."

And with that, Perseus was gone.

 **100 YEARS LATER**

A woman walked along a crowded marketplace, her grey eyes darting from side to side as if she were being followed.

The woman was finely dressed. She wore a gown made of fine silk, and a diamond necklace that had earrings to match. Her hair was in an elegant braid, indicating that she was from a wealthy family.

"Hey!" A man from a small booth leered at her shamelessly as she walked by. "How much for the necklace and dress? I'll throw in a bit more if you give a little show."

"This dress is worth more than your entire family's savings." The woman said simply.

This woman's name was Zoe Nightshade.

As the man angrily grumbled to himself, Zoe mused about how he'd react if she burst into her armor and set his booth on fire.

 _Focus,_ she reminded herself. Zoe walked out of the marketplace and towards a small little gathering of huts by a river.

Zoe smiled softly to herself. She felt it in her bones.

Perseus was here.

As two little kids came running past her, playing tag, she knelt and stopped one of them. "Does a man named Perseus live here?" She asked kindly.

The little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Perseus is nice! He lives in the hut closest to the river!" She said before excitedly running off again.

Zoe sighed to herself. 100 years of searching had finally led her to this place.

Thinking about the state Olympus was in sent a pang of worry through her system. The titans were attacking, and the gods were not faring well. Zoe felt like she had a large red target painted on her back from both sides. The gods feared that she was a spy for the titans, and the titans branded her a traitor after the whole Heracles fiasco.

Furthermore, all of the gods were under the impression that Perseus had long since faded. Even those that were close to him like Artemis and Poseidon had waved the white flag on their search.

But not Zoe. After Perseus had disappeared, she'd gone to work mastering all the weapons she could get her hands on. Like Perseus had said, she found she now had an affinity for each, and quickly got to training with Artemis.

Later at night, when Artemis would retire to her tent, Zoe would resume her search.

Zoe shifted as she remembered when she brought it up with Artemis.

 _Zoe and Artemis stood by the edge of their camp, bows drawn. They had just finished archery practice. "We can find him." Zoe said. "I know it."_

" _No." Artemis said, a bit angrily._

 _Zoe looked at her, shocked. "But Artemis, you of all people should"-_

" _Don't you dare finish that sentence." Artemis whispered furiously, golden cracks appearing in her skin. "Perseus is gone for good."_

 _Zoe glared at her._

" _In fact, how do you even know he's alive?" Artemis continued, her voice getting louder. "He's gone. Come to terms with it. I will not permit some silly search party for a dead man." She said and turned away, but Zoe swore she saw tears running down her cheeks._

100 years of following even the slightest whisper of Perseus had led her all over the place, from Greece to Rome, the Persian Empire, and now, by a small civilization by the Indus Valley.

It had been a long and treacherous road.

To be honest, Zoe was worried. She didn't even _know_ Perseus. She'd had one conversation with him, but that was it. The rest had been stories from her grandmother and the hunt.

Surprisingly, Poseidon chose to not speak of Perseus at all. Zoe gathered that the loss of both Perseus and his father was too much for the old god to speak of, and decided not to push that.

And well, Artemis was heartbroken. That much could be seen by anyone.

With a deep breath, she entered the hut. The first thing she noticed was how small it was.

Standing inside, she was looking at the entirety of it.

In front of her, there was a table with books on books stacked on top of it, half completed scrolls, and empty inkwells.

Across from the table, there was a small bed with a chest next to it. It has a label that read, "Maintenance supplies".

It was small and cozy. Zoe noted the seemingly normal flower vase that she could tell was full of arrows.

The curtains hid a bow, and a sword rested underneath the bed. Perseus was well prepared for any threat that could come.

Zoe heard a small sound outside of the hut. Fearing the worst, she covered herself in a golden light and she was now clad in silver armor and had two daggers in her hands.

"There's a woman in your tent asking for you!" She heard the small girl say.

"Is there?" Zoe smiled to herself as she heard Perseus talk. "I should go in and see her."

As the hut door opened and Perseus walked in, he disappeared and Zoe was quickly thrown against the room with a hard kick.

In a moment's time, Perseus had a bow and arrow in his hands and he was aiming down at her. The grey in his eyes seemed to be alive, twisting and squirming. "Who dares?"

"Father, wait! It's me!" Zoe cried out.

The fire in Perseus' eyes died down, but his bow didn't lower. "Zoe, what are you doing here?"

Zoe bit her lip. "We need you. The titans are attacking."

Perseus sat down on his bed with a sigh. "How did you find me?"

"I'm your daughter." She urged. "I'll always know where to find you."

A small smile appeared Perseus' face as she said this. "I can't come back, Zoe. You know that."

Zoe got up and sat down next to Perseus. She held one of his hands in hers. "Please. You're the only one that can save us."

Perseus grimaced at the revelation. Suddenly, he remembered his promise to Chloe. A new fire seemed to spread through his body, and his eyes lit up again. He turned to face Zoe with a determined look. "You know what? Let's go."


	6. Perses

Clang!

Two figures stood locked in a battle in the midst of an all out assault. One stood taller than any mortal man, about 9 feet tall.

He wore blood red armor, with glowing golden Greek letters on it. The weapon he fought seemed to flicker between a spear and a sword. It kept cycling through handheld weapons with each strike.

The man's eyes were the same red as his armor, and he had a harsh look on his face-as if he was the kind of person you could never please.

"Stand still, girl." He growled softly as he kept trying-and missing-his faster adversary.

The girl on the other hand seemed to be about 15, with short brown hair. She deflected all of the man's blows with two daggers, but she was tiring quickly.

"You're going to have to to better than that," she taunted.

"Be careful of what you ask." The man's armor gleamed red. His attacks got faster and harder to block, until the girl was caught by the butt of his spear and sent rolling.

The battle around them ceased. Everyone stopped to look at what they thought was the finish.

"Chloe!" A voice called, as the moon goddess Artemis touched down from her chariot in the sky. "Get away, Perses!"

Perses' face contorted into the smirk. "No one is fast enough to save her. Say goodbye to your huntress, Artemis!"

He raised his -axe, it was now-and went to cut her down. Chloe closed her eyes and waited for the cold edge of the axe to hit her, when she suddenly heard a collective gasp and Perses grunt.

She opened her eyes.

Perses' axe was lodged in the ground next to her. She looked to Perses to find that he was face to face with a tall man.

"So the dog returns." Perses mused as he reached back and pulled down another axe.

The man shifted, and she caught a smirk on the man's face. "All talk, Perses. You stand no chance."

Chloe's mind was hazy. She knew who the man was, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Perses gripped his axe tighter. "We will see. Perses, mighty titan of destruction versus Artemis' attack dog, Perseus."

Perseus said nothing, choosing instead to draw his sword. As it exited the sheath, there was a faint shink.

"Say goodbye to your beloved guardian, Artemis!" Perses roared.

Perses swung his axe forward, and time slowed down to Perseus.

Every minute detail of the swing seemed to register into his head. Everything from the way Perses gripped his axe to the angle at which it was coming down.

Making a few quick calculations, Perseus moved a bit to the right and ducked. Time resumed, and the swing went flying over his head.

Perses eyes widened. Since when was he this fast? "Ah, it appears that you aren't all talk." Perses said as he sped up even more.

Perseus dodged under each attack gracefully. In fact, he hadn't even broken a sweat yet.

On a particular strike, Perseus pushed the handle of Perses' axe down and punched him in the face so hard that there was an audible crack as he went blasting backwards.

"Oops." Perseus said nonchalantly. "What was that about me being an attack dog?"

That's when something in Perses changed. As he got back up, he took his axe and buried it in his own chest, dropping to his knees.

What the hell? Perseus thought as he watched Perses cough up blood.

Perses took his hand and ripped the axe off. As his blood dripped onto the ground, he smirked at Perseus. "Now we will have some fun."

Two giant earthen hands burst out of the ground and lifted Perses into the air.

Eyes widening, Perseus turned back to everyone watching. "Everyone, go! Now!"

"Why should they go, dog?" Perses asked as a dark green energy made its way into his body from the hands. "Let them see the show!"

Perseus said nothing, choosing instead to stare at Perses.

The hands disappeared into the ground, and Perses rose a foot taller than before. Before his armor had seemed bulky.

Now, his muscles strained it. He stood at least a foot taller than before.

"Scared?" Perses taunted.

Perseus rolled his eyes. "Considering you were slow before, didn't hit me, and now added on some weight, no, I'm not."

"I think you'll find"- Perses said as he zoomed in front of Perseus. "That I'm much faster."

The only indication Perseus made that he even heard him was a raised eyebrow. "Interesting. So the Earth Mother wages war? I see why I was brought back."

Perses nodded with a smirk. "Olympus will fall."

Perseus sighed, his body sinking into a stance. "If I had a drachma for every time I've heard that one..."

"I am the Titan of War!" Perses roared. "And I refuse to lose to Artemis' lapdog!"

True to his word, Perses had become significantly faster. His movements seemed to blur together, as even Artemis was having trouble keeping track of his movements.

Be careful, She thought worriedly. Despite the unease she was feeling watching the battle, she couldn't help but feel a sense of euphoria as well. Perseus had returned.

It was obvious now that Perseus had also kicked it up a notch. Rather that simply dodge Perses' attempts, he had begun to weave through them, causing Perses to growl in frustration.

"You do understand," Perseus began as he knocked away Perses' weapon with the flat of his blade. "That swordsmanship is my domain."

Perses gritted his teeth and poured more speed and power into his attacks.

"Damn you!" Perses hollered as he swung his axe with all of his might. Perseus simply raised his sword to meet Perses' weapon, and they collided with a deafening clang!

A wave of wind expanded from where the blades had met, and it caused dust to kick up.

Noting this, Perseus dug his sword into the ground and flicked up. More dust entered the air.

"What are you playing at?" Came Perses' agitated response.

Centuries of battle experience had honed Perses' instincts to be almost instantaneous. It was these instincts that told Perses to duck a moment later, when an arrow went whizzing past his head.

Sadly, that didn't prepare him for the two that lodged into his chest.

Looking down, Perses began to feel a rage so potent that it made his body quiver (see what I did there?). Green cracks began to appear on his body.

"PERSEUS!" He roared. Winds whipped up around him, sending the dust away and leaving him across from a Perseus who had his bow drawn. "This folly has gone on too long."

"I wholeheartedly agree, Perses." Perseus said as he gripped the sword tighter.

Perseus slammed his blade into the ground and kicked up dust again.

"Fight me like a man!" Perses demanded.

"No." Perseus said as he shot out of seemingly nowhere to cut a clean slice into Perses' armor before disappearing into the dust again. "I'd much rather fight you like a winner."

Perses roared once more. Bloodlust washed over everyone watching the battle.

"My lady," Chloe trembled at the bloodlust.

Artemis raised her hand. "Hunters, behind me."

"But...Perseus…"

"Will be fine." Artemis said with some steel in her voice. "We must allow him his space."

Perseus made no outward reaction at the bloodlust. Wind started pooling around his feet.

Perses raised his axe, but Perseus shot forward like a missle. Perses' eyes widened and he raised his axe horizontally, but Perseus cleaved down the middle with his sword.

"How"- Perses began but was cut off as Perseus drilled a thunderous punch into his jaw, lifting him up off of the ground.

In a blur, Perseus was above Perses. He rotated sideways a few times before delivering a hard kick to Perses' torso. Perses cried out in pain, Perseus' kick cracking the armor.

With a loud slam Perses was forcefully thrown into the ground. He formed a crater where he landed.

Perseus landed gracefully next to the crater.

Perses jumped out, breathing a bit heavily. "You are lucky beyond measure. Your whore and her detestable hunters were wearing me out long before you made an appearance."

Perseus cocked his head to the side. "Sorry, what did you just say?"

"I said, your whore"- Perses was sent spinning backwards as Perseus' foot connected with his face.

While Perses was in the air, Perseus unsheathed two daggers. He flew next to him and began to cut him up. The force of his cuts was knocking Perses around, but every time Perses moved, Perseus moved to that side and cut him there.

Silver ichor was flying from Perses' body, and Perseus threw one of his daggers down before stabbing through Perses with the one still in his hand. Perses instinctively tried to get to the ground, but failed to see the dagger as stabbed through his wrist.

Perseus kicked up the dust once again. He snarled, "You can insult me all you want, but don't you ever disrespect my family."

Perses shakingly rose above the cloud by springing up with his spear, but quickly realized his mistake when a searing silver arrow impaled itself in his abdomen. Then another in his shoulder. Four more sprouted from his painfully turned to his right and saw Artemis holding up her bow along with a few of her hunters.

Before Perses could really register what happened, Perseus' hand shot out from the dust. It grabbed him by the leg and smashed him back into his crater.

He held his sword against Perses' neck. "Your story ends here."

"For now." Perses grinned, his teeth covered with blood. "Rest assured, dog. When the Earth Mother deems it so, I will return."

Perseus' face hardened. "Is that so?"

"So long as my remains go back to the Earth, I will come back- bigger, faster and stronger. When I do, I'll slaughter you and this camp."

Perseus smiled, but it was a cold one. "Then you will die elsewhere."

Perseus bent down and held Perses by the scruff of his neck. For the first time throughout the entire exchange, Perses' eyes showed fear. "Put me down, dog!"

"I don't think I will." Was the quiet reply as Perseus began to close his eyes.

"Mother, help me!" Perses yelled in a last ditch effort. "Please, mother! Reward your faithful son!"

Everything stood still for a moment. The air stopped blowing, the animals stopped making noise. Everyone seemed to collectively hold their breath.

The ground softly shook. Reward? A feminine voice said sleepily.

"Mother!" Perses said with relief. "I knew you would save your son!"

The ground shook again. I do not see a son. I see a failure.

Perses' head slumped forward in defeat.

Welcome back, Perseus. The voice continued. Although it is saddening to see that the gods have regained a powerful adversary, I must say it is refreshing to see a god take out one of my kin- failure or not. We shall meet soon.

The voice stopped rumbling, and nature seemed to resume. Perseus spared Perses a glance. The multiple cuts and arrows along with Perseus' assault had begun to take its toll. Perses looked ready to keel over at any given moment.

"For what it's worth, I hope someday you and I can have a straight on one-on-one battle. You would be a powerful opponent." Perseus said to Perses. "Maybe then your insane mother would acknowledge you. Hades knows it takes a big fuss to get the attention of that mudface bitch."

Perses gave a hacking laugh. "I see now why they call you the god of valor. Calling the Earth Mother, a primordial goddess, a bitch while on her domain. You are an interesting man."

Perseus grinned at the compliment. "That I am."

"I wish that I could have been around to witness the greatness that you will undoubtedly achieve." Perses grimaced. His entire right side was covered in silver ichor. "Alas, I know what must come now."

"I can not allow you to reform." Perseus informed. "We both know that."

"I feel no anger towards you, Perseus." Perses retorted painfully. "May you do me one favor?"

"Yes." Perseus replied.

"I have a daughter. Hecate. P-please look after her." Perses wheezed. "She will need a father. I was never there for her, and now I do not have the chance to be"- he looked towards the hunters for a moment. "Cherish your family. You never know...never know when…"

"Hush." Perseus commanded. He lifted a few feet into the air with Perses. "Rest."

A moment later, Perseus blasted into the sky, going about the same speed he was when the chariot had been taken. As he neared the edge of the sky, he cocked his arm back and threw Perses.

Perses hurtled out of the field of view of Perseus. "To a battle well fought. May you find your peace." Perseus muttered before flying back down to the hunters.

AN: So how was that? Sorry for the delay, and I hope I didn't seem too rusty.


	7. Banishment Lifted

AN: Hey, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I enjoyed all of them.

This chapter is going to be a bit more fluff and humor than the others, cause I think it's good to change it up once in a while, rsather than just having angst and fighting and death all the time.

So I guess you could skip this chapter and not miss out on too much, but this really just shows Perseus getting his banishment lifted with the help of the council. That being said, it is a little boring. Not too much action.

TheRealMasonMac, that is a question that will be answered later on...so keep your eyes peeled :)

Also...you may have noticed that as of now, there is no official pairing for Perseus. I'd like to hear who you want him with before doing the whole cliche "Perseus is different from other guys and Artemis loves him" thing. I'm actually kinda leaning towards Aphrodite, cause I can't remember the last time I saw that pairing. The options will be at the end of the chapter.

Oh well, let me know what you think.

Anyways, onto the chapter.

Perseus touched down on the ground softly, his entire front spotted with gleaming silver ichor from Perses.

Not bad, He thought to himself. I still need to get faster.

"Perseus!" Perseus heard before he was knocked down to the ground. He looked up and saw that Chloe's face was practically right in front of his.

"Oh, hello, Chloe." Perseus said nonchalantly. "I see you took on Lady Artemis' blessing."

Chloe raised any eyebrow before she socked Perseus in the face. "You idiot! You come back 100 years later and that's the first thing you have to say to me?"

Perseus gave her a small smile as he touched the bruise that was a growing on his face. "Not bad. Pretty solid punch for a girl who was scared to hold her bow the first time."

"Yeah," Chloe said as she sat up on Perseus' chest. Her grin threatened to split her face in half. "It just took a special man to show me that I could do it."

"Oh?" Perseus said, feigning ignorance. "Those exist?"

"Just one." She said as she stood up and offered Perseus a hand. Right after he stood up, she hugged him tightly. "I knew you would come." She whispered.

Perseus smiled at her and hugged her back. "I promised that when you needed me, I would come. And, I have."

"Yeah, all thanks to me." Zoe smirked as she appeared next to Perseus. "Chloe here thought you were gone."

Chloe blushed a bright red. "I swear, Zoe is exaggerating!"

Perseus raised an eyebrow, and Chloe buried her face into the non-ichory part of Perseus' front. "Lady Artemis thought you were gone. She forbade anyone from speaking about you." Chloe mumbled sadly.

"I'm here now." Perseus patted her head. "Here to stay."

"Good." Came her muffled voice.

Zoe smiled at the sight and placed her hand on Perseus' shoulder. "Welcome home, father."

"We have a lot of catching up to do." Perseus admitted. "And, I need to go get your sister."

"My what?" Zoe asked incredulously. "You...you had a child while you were gone?!"

Perseus felt Artemis' glare on him before he even looked. "No, no, it isn't like that." He stressed. "I'm just fulfilling Perses' last wish. I haven't been romantically involved with anyone."

Zoe sported a mischievous grin. "What?" She yelled loudly. "Father, I cannot believe you slept with five different women! What are you going to do with all of the twenty children?!"

Perseus glared at Zoe, who was whistled innocently. With a loud crack Artemis flashed over to Perseus with her dagger in her hand.

"How dare you?" She began.

"Artemis."

"I trusted you!"

"Artemis."

"All those nights I wondered for your safety!" Artemis continued; oblivious to Zoe and Chloe's identical grins.

"Artemis."

"I even wondered if someday you'd come back and we could finally talk about that kiss!" Artemis yelled.

"Artemis."

Artemis threateningly spun her dagger. "But no, instead, you go out and act like a man! The one man I trusted goes and acts like the rest, do you know how much that hurts?!"

"Artemis." Perseus said more insistently. "I think, maybe, you should trust me and turn around and look at Zoe."

Albeit angrily, Artemis did turn around. Zoe had tears streaming down her face from laughing and was having trouble breathing.

Her eyes widened. She looker back and forth from Zoe and Perseus. "Um, Perseus…"

"Yes, my lady?" He replied innocently.

Artemis swallowed awkwardly. "I, uh, I was mistaken. It appears you did not sleep with women."

"Oh, no I did. I believe one of my rather naughtier escapades got out, and the whole civilization regarded me as a Sex God." Perseus said, and Artemis growled at him. "Kidding. I'm kidding."

Artemis crossed her arms angrily. "Humph. Both father and daughter are insufferable."

"Perhaps," Zoe retorted. "But you love us. Especially Father. Right, my lady?"

Artemis' face flushed slightly. "I am going to check on the hunters." She said before flashing away.

"You should refrain from teasing her like that." Perseus reprimanded, although the grin on his face sent the opposite message.

Zoe returned the smile, happy to be in Perseus' presence. "What now?"

Perseus smile dimmed a little. He looked to the sky, where storm clouds were beginning to gather. The message was clear: Get up here. "Now, Zoe, I go and face the music."

Zoe frowned. "Would they actually punish you for vanquishing a Titan? The Titan of Destruction no less?"

"You would be surprised the things Zeus would justify punishment for." Perseus mumbled. "Well, see you soon, Zoe. Perhaps Hecate will be with me when I return."

Zoe grinned and waved goodbye. "Don't do anything stupid!" She yelled as he flashed away.

OLYMPUS

As the gods waited for Perseus to arrive, there were two sides to the room.

Side 1 contained the majority of the gods; Hera, Demeter, Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hestia (who was tending the fire), Artemis (fresh from her embarrassment), and Hermes.

They were glad Perseus returned. To Hera, Perseus had been sort an idol for what Zeus should be. He was kind and handsome, and extremely loyal to his family. She respected that aspect of him, and wished that Zeus would be more like him. In many ways, Perseus brought the Olympians together, something that she was extremely grateful for.

Then, Demeter. Prior to his unfortunate banishment, Perseus and Demeter had actually been quite friendly. As it turned out, Perseus was knowledgeable about all sorts of plants and such and helped tend to Demeter's gardens whenever he was dropping by.

Athena, was arguably the most excited. Perseus was everything she'd ever wanted in a son, and the two of them had been very close. Since he was gone, Athena had all but retreated into the comfort and solace of her own books and studies, practically abandoning her godly duties.

If not her, than Poseidon. Poseidon not only lost his son, but then got to know his grandson, only to have him taken. Much like Athena, he had isolated himself in his domain in order to escape the grief of losing Perseus.

Aphrodite was all but bouncing (a sight that a lot of the male gods would have loved to see). In her opinion, Perseus was just about the most handsome god to have set foot on Olympus. Throw that in with his respectfulness no matter what, unwavering loyalty to those he cared about, and his intelligence on and off the battleground, and she found herself drooling when he walked by.

Despite his wife's obvious fascination with him, Hephaestus enjoyed Perseus' company. Perseus was one of the few people who would look past his physical appearance and actually hold a conversation with him. In fact, Perseus designed many of his inventions that gained attention. Hephaestus owe alot to him.

Hestia smiled as she watched Perseus' interaction with Perses earlier. While many of the gods simply walked by her or disregarded her, Perseus made it a point to frequently drop by to check in on her. While nothing usually happened, as Hestia was almost always on Olympus, it was good to know that someone cared enough to check up on her and her hearth.

Artemis, although she would deny it, missed Perseus dearly. The hunt had been more than a bit morose, and she'd had to outlaw mention of him- or else the hunt would not move on. She allowed herself a small grin. The hunt had its co-leader back.

If there was anything Hermes respected more than Perseus' ability to juggle responsibilities at once, it was his speed. Speed was a part of battle that Hermes noted that many other gods simply brushed off. Yet, Perseus' battle style revolved around his speed. Hermes and Perseus would often race as well, with Perseus actually succeeding in beating him once-not that Hermes would admit that.

This side of the room seemed to have a glow about it. Sure, everyone had different reasons, but it was the general consensus that they were happy that Perseus was returning.

Now, onto the other side.

This side consisted of Zeus, Ares, Apollo, and Dionysus. Hades wasn't at Olympus at this time, or he'd be a part of the side that was happy to see him.

Zeus, for obvious reasons, heavily disliked Perseus. Sure, at first Zeus liked him-when Perseus passed his "wine test" and proved to be a calculating demigod. Sure, Zeus was even on board with making him a god. The boy had done a lot in the name of Olympus, and what was one more minor god? Until he became an Olympian- and a headstrong one at that. From that point on, Perseus seemed to indirectly or directly defy every order Zeus made. Zeus grumbled to himself as he saw the excitement in the room. He caught Ares' eye, who shook his head imperceptibly.

Ares too, hated Perseus. A well known fact around Olympus was that Ares most definitely had a thing for Aphrodite. I mean, who wouldn't? He thought. Everyone he knew couldn't help but look her up and down as she walked by. Well, almost everyone. That bastard Perseus could, and Fate seemed to be mocking Ares, as Aphrodite was as crazy about Perseus as Ares was about her! Not to mention, Ares got his clock cleaned. He challenged Perseus to a duel, insulted the hunters, and promptly got his arm sliced in half. As if remembering the incident, Ares unconsciously rubbed his arm.

Apollo didn't really have a reason to hate Perseus. Well, he was the one who brought Apollo's chariot back after that whole mishap (Apollo never heard the end of it) and Perseus and Artemis were close, so that was reason enough.

Absently swishing around his wine, Dionysus too began cursing Perseus. You see, when Dionysus was a freshly made god on Olympus, he'd had this oh-so-bright idea of sneaking in his "special" wine that would lower any goddess' inhibitions so that he could gain a potential partner (no one would dare consort with him due to his drunken nature). Unfortunately for him, he'd been blacked out when Perseus' domains were called, and he therefore had missed the part where Perseus was introduced as the patron of women. Making a long story short,when Perseus found out, it ruined his chances of finding a wife on Olympus even more, and promptly lowered his ability to have children.

Dionysus winced.

Anyways, to the present.

With a silver flash, Perseus appeared before all the gods for the first time in 100 years. "Hello, Olympians."

"Hello, Perseus." Aphrodite said with a wink, to which Perseus gave a smile and a wave.

Athena had a small smile on her face, but her eyes were shining with happiness. "Perseus."

"Mother."Perseus replied warmly, bowing his head.

Zeus cleared his throat rather loudly. Half of the room shot him an irritated glance, to which he paid no mind. "What are you doing here, Perseus?"

"Well, I was talking to my mother and Lady Aphrodite before you interrupted me, my lord." Perseus said, his tone betraying no emotion.

"Er, well, other than that. What are you doing on Olympus?"

"Oh, that." Perseus clarified, to which Zeus nodded in relief. "Let's see. Right now, I am speaking. I am unconsciously breathing- not so unconscious now, since I mentioned it. I believe I just blinked. I"-

Zeus angrily growled. "Perseus, if you could answer why you are here, I would greatly appreciate it."

"Ah, Lord Zeus, why did you not just say so?" Perseus asked jovially, and Zeus' eye twitched. "My daughter came to get me from the Indus Valley Civilization. The Earth Mother appears to be waking."

Zeus leaned back into his throne. "You need not concern yourself with this, we have it under control."

"Right, of course, my lord." Perseus said. "Then, pray tell, why did I find a Titan fighting a group of hunters rather than one of us?"

Zeus sputtered. "Ah, ah yes that was a, uh, test. We figured that allowing the hunt to fight a minor Titan would allow us to gauge their progress."

Perseus looked at him skeptically. "My lord, Perses is hardly a minor Titan."

"Perses?!" Zeus asked frantically. "We need to get down there, now!"

"I already dispatched of him." Perseus informed the frantic council.

"And you don't have a mark on you?" Ares scoffed, speaking for the first time. "Yeah, right."

"I must have misheard," Perseus stated as he turned to face Ares, his gray eyes began to glow a bit. "Were you doubting my word, Ares?"

"So what if I was?"

Perseus maintained eye contact with Ares as an oppressive silence began to fill the room. "Would you care to test my skills for yourself? I assure you, my swordsmanship has grown exponentially since the last time we fought. The arm looks like it healed well, by the way."

Ares' response died in his throat as he felt the warning glare of all of the goddesses in the room on him. "Fine. I bet it was a lucky shot anyway."

Zeus cleared his throat once more. "Well, thank you for your assistance in the war, Perseus."

"My lord," Hera interjected. "Why not lift the banishment of Perseus? He has done Olympus a huge favor, has he not?"

Zeus faltered. "Well, I do not really"-

"Oh yes," Athena added. "Who knows where we would be without his assistance?"

"Maybe"-

"You can not deny he did us a favor, brother." Poseidon added in his two cents.

"I suppose"-

"And he looks so hot." Aphrodite said and the room got quiet. "What?" She asked as the whole room stared at her.

"Right," Zeus awkwardly continued. "I suppose Perseus' banishment could be lifted."

"Why, thank you, Lord Zeus." Perseus said graciously, overdramatically bowing.

"Right. I will be taking my leave." A monstrous bolt of lightning slammed into Zeus, and whisked him away.

The next thing Perseus knew, he was crushed in the warm embrace of Athena.

"My son," She whispered, stroking his hair. As she pulled away to look at his face, she gave him a teary smile. "Oh, how I missed you."

"I missed you too." Perseus said as he brushed Athena's tears away. "But now, I am here. To stay." He noticed Poseidon come up behind Athena. "Hear that, gramps? You better be prepared to get decimated in another fishing competition."

"Perseus, you have yet to beat me," Poseidon said, laughing loudly. "However, I agree to that. I have not been out for a good fishing trip in a while."

"That is because no immortal or mortal but Perseus hangs around after the Kraken comes out." Hera mused as she walked over. "Welcome home, Perseus."

He bowed. "Thank you, my lady."

"Perseus, you know you need not bow to me." Hera smiled as she waved his bow off. "You are one of the only bearable males on Olympus after all."

"Mm, that he is," Aphrodite agreed as she, too, walked over. "Glad to see you."

"Always a pleasure, Lady Aphrodite. Beautiful as always." Perseus complimented.

"Oh, you!" She said before doing a little twirl. "Do you like the hair?"

"It looks lovely." Perseus commented as he suddenly backed away from the crowd.

"As much fun as it is to catch up, I remembered that I have a promise to uphold. Mother, grandfather, would you care to have dinner tonight to meet my family?" Perseus asked.

"Of course." Athena said warmly.

"Count me in." Poseidon gave Perseus a thumbs up.

Now, to find Hecate.

That is it for now, I thought that the chapter was getting too long. Based on how I ended it, the next chapter will also be mostly fluff with some non fluff mixed in, or maybe not. It depends.

And, if you couldn't tell, I'll allow Perseus to be with:

Demeter

Hestia

Aphrodite (I like this one)

Hera (I like this one)

Artemis

Or any other female you like

Make sure to tell me which one, or I'll just choose from Hera or Aphrodite!

'Till next time.


	8. Hecate

AN: The pairing is back to Percy/Artemis, although I sort of guessed it, considering I wrote the whole backstory like that.

Thanks to everyone who put in their two cents, though. The reviews were really interesting to read, and I was actually pleasantly surprised with the number of people vying for Perodite. Those people did not win, obviously, but it was still interesting. I actually have a Perodite story but god knows when I'll get around to updating, seeing as I barely have time for this. You may be wondering: Why would he bother asking?

Just a couple reasons:

1\. I wanted to give you guys a choice, just in case you wanted to voice your opinion. You know, speak now or forever hold your peace and all.

2\. I thought it would be an interesting change if the reviews had been in favor of someone else. It would be a challenging write and such, but I don't really mind it being Pertemis

I'm going to go ahead and say that this Pertemis will likely be _SLOW._ Slow seems like the way to go, as an immortal being who has spent all of her some thousand years of life hating men isn't going to immediately be comfortable with being romantically involved with a man, not even crossing the whole "virgin goddess" bridge yet.

When I first joined this site, I was an avid reader of Pertemis. It was my absolute favorite pairing, until I sort of drifted more towards other fanfictions-which is why this is sort of my way of paying homage to that. Would you guys be interested in hearing some of my favorites?

Another matter being that I've really lengthened the plot of the story from what it was supposed to be. For all matters and purposes, this chapter and everything before it is technically part of the prologue. Yet, I remember some people earlier saying that they wanted more of the "Ancient" stuff before I moved on to PJO and all that. Is that still the general consensus, or do you guys now want me to move on? I'm impartial.

Anyways, for now, onto the chapter.

Dark, jutting walls exploded to life around Perseus. A large, arcing cavern was over his head, where a dust chandelier swung. Wherever he flashed, it was clear that he was currently standing in a waiting room.

The other patients paid him no mind as he settled into a seat.

 _Odd,_ Perseus noticed. Most of the patients looked sickly and far beyond being helped by the capabilities any hospital could provide- even one a goddess could provide. That was why he was here, after all. To find Hecate.

He looked around briefly, his intelligent eyes drinking in every minute detail of the room.

It was dimly lit. The walls were peeling, and the room smelt faintly of blood. Perseus heard the faint clinking noise of vials, before a piercing scream echoed down the hall. His head shot up, but none of the patients even looked up.

Perseus' honed ears picked up the crazy mutterings of a few of those around him.

"Blood transfusion"-

-"oh yes, his screams were amazing"-

What made it all the more eerie was that these were from the same person, too.

Perseus leaned back into his chair, not really deterred by the apparently insane people that were around him. If a Titan couldn't kill him, delusional mortals wouldn't.

Probably.

Looking around again, the other decorations around the room only served the make it eerier. The wall had a skeleton on it. Perseus noted that it kept moving on its own, like it was alive.

A loud shriek followed, and Perseus heard whimpering. He went to stand, but then opted to sit down for a few moments. Maybe something else would happen.

"We are used to this," One patient fervently whispered to him, his breath smelling faintly of mothballs. His eyes were a milky color. "Lady Hecate does wonders for us."

Perseus nodded to himself, as it turned out he would find Hecate here. "What is this place?" He whispered back.

"The Clinic." The man said, nervously rubbing his neck. "We come here to get fixed."

"How?" Perseus said, when he suddenly noticed the corner of the room blur a bit, before becoming sharper.

 _Ah. An illusion._

The screams came back. Blood splattered absent the wall, and a body slumped to the floor. The man shivered in delight. "Oh, yes. My turn."

Perseus stood. "Sit. I would like to go first."

"No!" The man shouted. None of the other patients looked up. "This is _my_ turn!"

He ran towards Perseus with a shard of glass from the floor. Sighing, Perseus stepped to the side and raised his hand to chop the man's neck. He vanished into a black mist.

"That was quite the illusion." Perseus said quietly. "This clinic you have made may have warded off any other god, Hecate."

The Clinic faded, and Perseus found himself face to face with an about sixteen year old looking girl. Her face was beautiful, but deathly pale. She was dressed in simple black robes, and her black eyes were hopelessly sad. "Who are you?" She asked quietly.

"Perseus." Perseus replied, bowing his head.

"The new Olympian." She breathed. "Well, what may I do for you, Perseus? It is not every day that an Olympian comes to visit a minor goddess."

Perseus acknowledged the bitter tone in her voice. "Ah, well, I would like you to become my daughter."

One moment passed.

Then another.

And another.

Hecate's face twisted in anger. She lifted her hands, and wisps of mist started curling off of them. "What sort of sick, twisted joke is this?"

"I slew Perses. In his final breaths, he asked me to look after you. I am sure he did not specifically ask me to adopt you, but I figured that I would go all the way." Perseus said simply.

Hecate immediately dropped her hands. Despite her decidedly cold attitude, her next words were hopeful. "In his las breaths, he was worried about me?"

"He was." Perseus said. "So much so that he asked I, a complete stranger who he had just fought, to look after you. He cared, Hecate."

Hecate said nothing, but Perseus saw two trails of tears rolling down her cheeks. He closed his eyes, and a golden glow emitted from him. As the glow reached Hecate, her tears disappeared and she looked more at ease.

"I can help you," Perseus continued. "I have experience in training my powers, and with my help you can pick up a weapon or two, too."

She looked down at her hands. "I suppose training wouldn't be all bad."

Perseus softly touched her shoulder. When she looked up at him and shied away from his eyes, he warmly moved her face with his hand so they were looking straight at each other. "Hecate, training is not the only thing I can give, and by far, the least important. The most important thing I can hope to offer is family. I have a mother who loves me very much, and a grandfather that does too. I also have another daughter who I rescued from Atlas, and I am hoping that I can spend time with her now since my banishment was lifted."

"Another daughter of a Titan, huh? I've never had a family." Hecate said morosely. "What if I mess up?"

Perseus smiled down at her. "In family, messing up means nothing. We will be there for you, no matter what. No more being alone. No more illusions of family- you will have the real thing." He said.

This time, Hecate didn't look away, even if she was slightly uncomfortable under the gaze of another human for so long. "Do you promise?"

"Yes. I swear it upon the River Styx." The oath was sealed as thunder rumbled overhead.

Hecate smiled for the first time, but it was small and a little shy. "I'd love to be a part of your family."

"Well, since this is my first day back in a hundred years, I invited my mother and grandfather for dinner. We can go straight there, because I am guessing that Zoe is already with them." Perseus said before he and Hecate warped away in a silver flash.

"Late as always," Athena commented as Perseus and Hecate arrived at her palace. "Yet, somehow still before Poseidon."

"Come on, grandma, Poseidon is _always_ late." Zoe said as she came up next to her. She immediately came forward and hugged Perseus. "Hey, dad."

"Hello, Zoe." Perseus replied, hugging her back. He discreetly motioned towards Hecate, and Athena nodded.

She came forward and placed her hands on Hecate's shoulders. "Ah, you must be my newest granddaughter."

Hecate turned a bright red. "I, uh, yes. That is me."

Athena smiled at her unease. "No need to fret, dear. My name is Athena."

"And I am Poseidon." Poseidon said as he appeared next to Athena, holding a fish the size of himself. "Sorry, niece, but dinner was being fussy."

Zoe laughed at this, and Perseus did too. "Grandfather, leave it to you to let a fish slip."

Poseidon's trident appeared. In faux anger, he said, "Ah, but I promise you would not."

"Pitiful." Athena grumbled as she took the fish. "You could not scare a baby, uncle."

"I get no credit around here," He winked at Hecate, "Yet, there is nowhere I would rather be."

A few minutes later, they were settled around a dinner table, steaming fish on their plates. Athena snapped her fingers, and glasses of wine appeared next to everyone's plates. "To Perseus' return." Athena said warmly, raising her glass.

"Hear, hear." Zoe and Poseidon echoed.

"It feels great to be back," Perseus said, smiling. "Hopefully now, I will have the chance to be with my family much more, and take a more active hand in your training." The latter half of the statement was directed at Zoe and Hecate.

"What do you do?" Zoe asked Hecate.

"I don't really know the full extent of my powers," Hecate admitted. "But I can make illusions and this mist that addles the senses of mortals and immortals alike."

"And soon she will wield weapons better than most." Poseidon added. "Unless Perseus here is slipping."

"Oh please, grandfather, the only slipping here is you on just about any given boating trip we have been on."

Athena stifled a laugh. "Really, now?"

Poseidon grumbled, and the rest of the table laughed. Perseus smiled at seeing this. The rest of the night wore on quickly, and it was at its end before any of them knew it.

"I better get going. Atlantis is a mess." Poseidon said.

"I think Lady Artemis needs me to oversee some hunter training." Zoe said, to which Perseus shook his head.

"Actually, Lady Artemis and I are going to spar, with everyone watching. Would you like to come?" He asked Hecate.

She nodded shyly.

"I would like to come as well," Athena commented.

"Atlantis can wait." Poseidon smirked, and the five of them found themselves in the hunters' camp.

Artemis was already waiting in a makeshift ring in the middle of the camp, with hunters circling around at a safe distance. A number of them cheered upon his arrival, which shocked some of the hunters that had joined in the time that Perseus was gone.

Athena grabbed his arm. "Put on a good show."

"I'll do my best," Perseus promised, as he walked into the ring.

Artemis yawned as she unsheathed her daggers and spun them. "I expect a good fight."

Perseus said nothing as he drew his sword. _I can't treat this fight like I treated my fight with Perses. Perses had fought for an undisclosed amount of time, but based on the amount of people there, it was probably a decent amount._

Artemis began to crouch low.

 _Artemis, on the other hand, wasn't even in the battle. She was outside it, and even if she was in the battle, she's an Olympian. She'd be fine by now._

"Going to make a move, Perseus?" Artemis taunted, but Perseus just shook his head.

There was a slight _shink_ as Perseus' sword separated in two, and he dual wielded the swords. A slight humming noise filled the camp, and a silver light ran down Perseus' swords and throughout his entire body.

Artemis shifted her weight, and shot forward. Perseus made no move to block her.

"What is he doing?" A hunter whispered to another.

"Just wait." Chloe said knowingly.

Artemis closed in more and more, and just as she was about to make contact with Perseus, he shot forward.

"Gah!" Blood went flying out of Artemis' mouth as she was stopped by Perseus' fist right in her torso. Perseus followed up by shifting his weight onto his back foot and snapping her head back with a kick.

"I think you lost your touch, my lady." Perseus said with a small smile as Artemis backpedaled to wipe the blood off.

"Not bad." She came at him again, this time faster. Her dagger clanged off of one of Perseus' swords. "How are you so fast?"

"Training." Came Perseus' simple response as he deflected another one of her blows easily. "Something which you have been slacking on."

"I have not been slacking." Artemis defended as she sent a flurry of slashes at Perseus, who fluidly evaded them all.

" _Au contraire,_ Arty." Perseus said as he caught her wrist and lightly pushed her back. "You're worse than when I left."

"Maybe you just improved." Artemis shot back. "With this new form of yours, I cannot even touch you. What is it called?"

"My negation field?" Perseus questioned as Artemis rolled out of the way of his jab. "You misunderstand. There is no valor in fighting in uneven conditions, and therefore, my form as you called it does nothing but even the battle grounds. In fact, this should make it easier for you to hit me."

Artemis growled as she flipped her daggers and launched at Perseus. He instinctively sidestepped, but was caught off guard when Artemis disappeared in a flash of silver light and appeared next to him.

Even then, Perseus' senses were working overdrive, allowing Artemis to only graze his cheek with her dagger. The hunters exploded in cheers, seeing as Artemis had apparently taken the lead in the spar.

"Ah, so we are using powers." Perseus said as the glow left him.

Artemis opened her mouth to speak when Perseus crashed his shoulder into her, lifting her up. He quickly followed up by grabbing her leg and flinging her into her crowd of hunters.

Perseus yawned as he walked over to Artemis. "Looks like we have to get you back into the hang of training. With a war brewing, you are doing not only yourself a disservice, but also one to Olympus and your hunters."

"Unfortunately." She groaned. "You hit like a bull, Perseus."

"Thank you, my lady."

 **AFTER WRITING THIS, I BELIEVE THAT I WILL SKIP TO PJO**


	9. Percy Jackson

**AN: Sorry for the late chapter, the real world's just hit me hard as of late. I had this conference for one of the clubs I do last to last week, and then I just had prom, so my plate was pretty full for that period of time. As of now, I just want to rush and get a chapter out there for the sake of moving the story along, so you can consider this a filler chapter, if you'd like. 'Till next time**

 **Maroon**

Destruction.

Destruction everywhere.

Fire rained from the skies, smashing into the ground with large and often times deafening explosions. Sounds of battle raged, metal on metal, metal on dirt, metal on skin…

Percy awoke to seeing this all unfold. Nearby, a horse was mercilessly picked off by a catapult, and was whisked away with an alarmed neigh. The ground next to him went up in a plume of smoke and flames.

Real Percy yelled in fright, and tried to turn away. Dream Percy just stood there, like it was any other normal day.

"They have Zoe!" Percy heard a voice call. He looked down, and found himself dressed in golden armor while carrying two swords. He felt the familiar thrum of power circulating in his veins.

Not this dream again. God, anything but this dream. Percy tried to wake up, but he couldn't.

"Hades," He heard himself swear, his voice feel and confident despite the seemingly terrible news he had just been given.. "Stand back and help Artemis."

His swords melted into one. Percy could hear his heart beating in his ears. "Rest easy, Zoe." He muttered to himself. "I am coming."

Percy ran fast, faster than he'd ever ran before. The world around him blurred as he shot down the battle ground. Percy always tried to slow himself down, trying to see if he could recognize anyone in the dream. He never did.

As he came to a stop, he saw a man dressed in black holding his sword up to a teenaged girl in silver. As always, the man wasn't really a man, per se. He was gargantuan; 10 feet tall, at least, and built like an Olympic wrestler. The girl, who Percy vaguely identified as Zoe, had tears running down her face.

"Well?" The man asked, obviously expecting a response.

"Put her down." Percy commanded. "We both know that you will not last a moment against me in battle."

"Ah, ah, ah, Perseus." The man teased, wagging his finger. "I am not fighting you right now, am I? I am fighting your daughter."

As if on cue, Zoe looked up. "You were the best father a girl could ever ask for. I love you." She said, like always. Percy saw the acceptance and warmth in her eyes. "When I reform, I expect a baby sister from you and Artemis."

"Zoe, do not speak like that." Percy echoed, and he felt himself tense up, ready to shoot forward again.

"The most sublime act is to set another before you," She said, and then smiled as if she and Percy had shared an inside joke.

The man in black sent him a wicked grin. He raised his sword, his inhuman grip denting the flimsy metal hilt. "You fail again, Perseus. You fail again."

He dove the sword into the girl's chest.

"Zoe!" Percy Jackson yelled as he shot straight up in his bed. Beads of sweat trailed down his forehead, and his chest was heaving as if he'd just ran a marathon.

"Yo, Perce, you okay?" A voice asked from the bunk underneath him.

"Yeah. Yeah Grover, I'm fine." Percy replied, taking in shaky breaths. He blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall. It all felt so real…

"Zoe again?" He asked knowingly. "It's just a dream, man."

Percy sighed softly as he leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. He tried remembering her face. He'd seen it so many times before, but it again eluded him.

 _Silver eyes, pale skin-_ No that was Artemis, another person from his dreams.

 _Gray eyes, tan skin-_ Athena.

 _Silver-ish eyes, tannish skin, black hair-_ Ah, Zoe.

"Who are you?" He whispered, sighing. He gently laid his head back down against his pillow and drifted off.

The next day, Percy and Grover were woken up by a rapping on their doors.

"Get up!" A shrill voice yelled from outside. "The bus leaves in 10 minutes."

"Yes, Ms. Dodds." They both said robotically, and began to get ready.

"Excited?" Grover asked Percy as he pulled on some pants.

"Oh, yeah." Percy replied. "Who wouldn't be excited to take a field trip to Manhattan with twenty eight mental case kids and two teachers to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of all places. I'm practically bursting with joy."

"Hey, hey." Grover defended. "I think that going to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff is a really cool field trip, and one that we should be happy to take."

"You're just saying that 'cause you have a man crush on Mr. Brunner." Percy joked, putting on his watch. He took a moment to glance at the engraving along the simple dial as Grover sputtered indignantly (I just like his style!).

 _With love, Mom_

Percy had received this watch on his tenth birthday from his mother, Sally Jackson. Percy had no idea at all how she afforded it while working at a candy shop, because he knew all too well that most, if not all, of her money went straight to Smelly Gabe (his stepfather)'s poker games or his schooling.

"Yo, Perce." Grover said, snapping him out of his stupor. "Bus time."

"Alright," Percy said, following Grover out of his room.

"Ah, Mr. Underwood, Mr. Jackson, glad you could join us." They were greeted by a man outside of the bus. He was a middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which Percy noted always smelled at least faintly of coffee.

"Sorry, Mr. Brunner." Grover said, sucking up to him.

Percy went to say something, but suddenly found himself on a teetering boulder overlooking a giant drop.

He looked up, and saw Mr. Brunner, only he wasn't in a wheelchair. Actually, for a moment, he forgot he was even looking at Mr. Brunner. His bottom resembled that of a huge white stallion-all animalistic and muscly, with sinew under coarse white fur. But where its neck should be was the upper body of Mr. Brunner, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"We need not make haste," Brunner-Horse said, removing a bow from around its body. It drew the air, and fired.

A loud sizzling noise filled Percy's ears as the arrow left a trail of smoke in its wake. "Think you can follow that, Perseus?"

"Please, Chiron." Percy replied. "You taught me well." Percy felt his body shift in the direction of the arrow. He began to jump-

"Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner said, louder. "Seat 23. Are you feeling well?"

"Uh, yeah. Fine. Thanks, Chir-Mr. Brunner." Percy said, smoothly fixing his mistake.

Mr. Brunner looked surprised for a moment, but it was quickly gone. "Yes, of course, Mr. Jackson. After all, it's my duty to prepare you for what lies ahead."

Percy nodded, feeling like he'd heard those words before. He got on the bus and sat next to Grover, as per usual.

"What'd Brunner want?" Grover asked, leaning a bit to let the other kids past him. He adjusted his Rasta cap.

"Nothing." Percy said, which was pretty much true. _It is my duty to prepare you for what lies ahead._

After taking a short nap, Percy was woken up by Grover shaking him.

"We're here."

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where they could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

"Hot dogs, get ya free hot dogs!" A man wearing a red apron was yelling with wieners in both his hands. Percy turned to face the oddity, as you'd be hard pressed to find anything for free in New York. "You know what that they say about wieners, the more the merrier!"

The man suddenly faced Perseus, shocking him slightly. He was in a crowd of maybe 100 kids, yet the wiener guy was definitely looking straight at him.

"It will happen tonight, Perseus." The man said, his red cap covering the majority of his face, besides his smirk. "It'll be good to have you back."

Percy somehow heard him from below the stairs, which in itself would be nothing short of a miracle- yet, Percy was on guard. While Percy was his preferred name, Perseus was his actual name. As it was, barely any people knew of this.

Especially not some random hot dog guy.

Percy craned his neck to see him again, but he was gone.

"Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner said, wheeling next to him. "Are you quite sure you're feeling alright?" Percy noticed that the rest of the kids had gone away, and he'd been standing alone for quite some time.

"Yeah, I just, I've been seeing weird things all day. I must've had a bad sleep."

"Yes, that is certainly very possible." Mr. Brunner agreed, stroking his beard a bit. His eyes looked at Percy curiously. "Say, Percy, we're having a quick snack on the fountains, if you'd like to join your classmates."

Percy caught the underlying message and nodded. "See ya, Mr. Brunner."

Mr. Brunner inclined his head. What Percy didn't notice as he walked away were the looks he and Mr. Brunner were getting- after all, they'd just had a conversation in perfect Ancient Greek.

After a small occurrence with the resident cheeto, as Grover called her, Percy made it into the museum. Little did he know, his day-and life- would take a steep turn from that point.

The museum tour was fairly plain; Mr. Brunner rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding the kids through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

Percy yawned as Mr. Brunner walked through the story of how the Olympians came to be. Asking to use the bathroom to spare himself the same long winded rendition he always got, Percy left the crowd.

BATHROOMS AHEAD, He saw a sign say and he followed it.

"Ah," A woman stopped him. "Bathrooms, huh? Might want to be careful, I heard there were some leaky pipes."

"Okay," Percy said weirdly. All kinds of strangers were talking to him today. She glanced down at him for a moment, and he was able to better see her gray eyes and tanned skin.

"Say, are you Athena?" Percy asked, squinting at her. She had the decency to blush.

The girl shook her head and raised a finger to his lips. "Names have power, Perseus. Be careful."

She vanished, and Percy rubbed his eyes warily. Was she ever there in the first place?

He nervously fiddled with his watch as he reached the bathrooms. An old janitor opened the bathroom door, pulling along his janitorial supplies with one hand and holding his mop with the other. "This bathroom here is damn near unusable, my boy. Maybe go use another?"

"Look man, I just wanted to miss my teacher's tirade about the Olympians." Percy admitted. He felt exposed to this man, like he could see right through any lies Perseus could tell. "I don't have to pee."

The man made a tsk noise before smiling kindly at Percy. He walked past him, and before turning the corner, whispered, "Don't forget the watch, Perseus."

Percy's head whipped back, but he too, disappeared. Only this time, Percy noticed some lingering black mist. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it.

People really didn't want him to use the bathroom, apparently.

As he opened the door with a creek, the smell of wet animals assaulted Percy's nose. He gagged for a moment, before pushing through completely and walking in.

He saw another boy that was about his age.

Brushing past him to use the urinal, Percy almost grimaced at how he smelled. It was like the wet animal smell, only magnified by a million.

As Percy, well, did his business, the other boy began to wash his hands. Percy didn't really see what happened exactly, but this boy must've been a freak or something, as the faucet he tried to turn snapped off. Water shot up from the faucet to the ceiling, dropping back to the ground.

If that wasn't bad enough, the pressure building from the broken faucet exploded all of the sinks in a row.

"What the fuck?" Percy cried, thankfully finishing his business as this happened. He faced the boy.

"Ah," The boy said, his guttural voice not at all matching his appearance. "My mistake, _my lord_." He said my lord with an iciness that caused Percy to blink.

"I'm sorry, what?"

The boy grinned, and his grin actually began to stretch the rest of his face apart.

"Hades," Percy instinctively swore.

"Nah, good guess though." The boy breathed, his body doubling, tripling in size to the point where his head was against the ceiling. In the blink of an eye, brown fur began sprouting out of odd places on his body, which was one rippling with muscles.

 _Crash!_ The wall was smashed as a huge, snaking tail rose out of the boy's back and whipped around.

The boy groaned, his teeth being sharpened to a point, and his eyes glowed red. His nose grew smaller and wider, like a cow.

Percy backed up the opposing wall, trembling. "Help!" He yelled. "Someone, help!"

"No help." The beast snorted, horns protruding from its head. "You and me, we're going to have some fun."


	10. Reunion- sort of

**AN: I gotta say guys, I am sorry. It has been a little bit since I last updated, I know. It's just that the last time I updated was during the week that SATs _just happened to_ come up, and then AP tests came up, and then SATs came up again and prom came up again. This has been by far the busiest part of my year- not that I'm complaining.**

 **In fact, I actually have SATs this week as well (I want to take them 3 times to superscore) but it's Memorial Day as I'm starting this and I really, really don't want to go another week without updating. That's just not how I roll. So, if you think this chapter is lower in quality, I'm sorry, but I'm doing my best with what I have.**

 **On a brighter note, you can expect weekly updates (maybe even twice or three times a week) once this last week is over because then I'll be done with SATs and school will be winding down and it'll be summertime! *woot woot***

 **Anyways, without any further ado, onto the chapter. Enjoy.**

Percy gasped as the man-bull thingy lifted him up into the air with a hand. "You're so much more fun this way." It snorted. "So weak. So pitiful."

He reared back and threw Percy as hard as he could. Percy groaned as he smashed through the bathroom wall and ended up sprawled in the Native American exhibit.

"What the hell?" Percy moaned, pushing himself up to standing position. He looked around and noticed he was in the back of a wagon. A small Native American girl was looking at him disapprovingly, as if to say, wow, you're bad.

The man-bull slowly stepped through the hole in the wall, shielding his eyes from the sudden light. The whole room was covered in stained glass windows at the top.

Percy slowly hopped out of the back of the wagon. "What the hell is going on?"

"You're going to die," It reiterated simply. "For what you did to my mother."

Yeah, and who's that? The Ben and Jerry's cow? Percy thought. "Look buddy, I didn't do anything to anyone."

"My father was the Minotaur." It continued. "He and a water Nymph had settled down, after the whole maze fiasco. Gained a bit of humanity."

Percy looked at it, confused.

The bull obviously took this as a sign to continue. "And then you had to come and mess things up. Perseus, the oh so great patron of all women had to come and make sure my mother wasn't bewitched or anything, just because she was with my father. And maybe she was. She just needed a little nudge, is all. She loved my father, though."

"Well, what happened next?" Percy asked, although he regretted it almost immediately when he saw the bull's countenance darken.

"She 'realized' that she'd been bewitched and came to you with open arms, begging for you to take her away from her captors."

"So, wait. I supposedly helped a bewitched women come to her senses and then rescued her, and I'm the bad guy?"

"That was my mother, you fool!"

"That you just admitted was bewitched! She wouldn't have been your mother if it weren't for whatever your psycho dad did."

"The Minotaur." Bullsy replied. "That's my father."

"Slow down," Percy said. "The Minotaur was real?"

"Is." The bull corrected. "He is real, and he's on his way here. I just couldn't help but get started."

"With what?"

"With tearing you apart limb by limb." It began stalking forward.

Percy tensed. Remembering the advice from before, he looked at his watch. It seemed to be pulsing and emitting a golden light. Percy gazed at the inscription, before the letters faded away, making way for two symbols to appear anew.

A sword.

A bow.

Percy tentatively pressed the sword. A loud ringing sound burst forth from the watch, and a golden dome of light sprang forward, enveloping Percy's entire left arm.

The bull stopped. "What is this?"

The light died down, and in Percy's hand was a gleaming bronze sword. It's hilt was worn, but fit Percy's hand perfectly- like it was made for him. Along the flat of the blade ran a series of Greek words.

At Least, they looked Greek.

"So you got a sword, big deal." The bull snorted. "It won't help you!"

Percy ran towards the bull, and slid under his meaty hand. He snapped back up, and the sword slashed across the bull's leg.

"This thing feels weightless," Percy muttered to himself.

The bull staggered back. "Why, you!"

"Doesn't feel so good, does it?" Percy taunted. "Once I'm done with you, even McDonald's won't want you!"

The bull stopped and gave Percy an exasperated look. "Okay, come on. It's bad enough that you hit me, do you need to say bad taunts too?"

Percy didn't reply, choosing rather to twirl his sword experimentally.

The bull ran towards Percy and slapped his sword hard. It went flying out of his hands, and then the decked him in the face with its shoulder. Percy felt a sickening crunch as he was lifted off of the ground and thrown backwards into a replica of Sputnik. Nearby, a wax statue of Yuri Gagarin was impaled in the face with Percy's sword.

As the bull began to stalk closer, Percy's sword pulsed with light and rang. The bull took a couple steps back, holding its head with its hands.

That's it! Percy thought.

The bull charged towards him again, but not one to be beat by the same trick multiple times in a row, Percy's mind was working overtime. He took everything into account; the speed of the bull, its size, its height- anything that could possibly hit him.

His body moving seemingly by itself, Percy suddenly turned and ran to the left. The bull looked on, suspiciously. "Hey, you know I'm down here , right?"

Percy jumped, landing on a red button on an exhibit. With a loud wail, two spy planes launched towards the bull. Percy hopped onto one.

Mid-flight, he jumped, grappling onto one of the museum banners. At this point, he was a good fifty feet above the bull, who had begun to jeer at him from below.

"Come down, coward! Athena would be disgusted!"

Athena? That sounds familiar.

"Please work, please work.." Percy prayed. "Whichever god or goddess is in charge of stupid, suicidal plans please make this work."

He looked upwards and threw the sword. It wedged itself in between the banners of the museum, right at the top, by the windows. It rang loudly (it was more of a screech, actually) and every single window in the room exploded.

Percy grunted, and tried to turn away, but was caught by many of the shards of glass. His grip on the banner loosened, and he slid down the wall.

On the other hand, the bull began to roar in pain. It clawed at its face, tearing large strips of flesh off. "Boy! I'll kill you for this!"

Percy cried out in pain as he landed. He felt a searing hot pain in his left ankle as he stood up, leaning against the wall. "Oh, fuck."

The bull charged at him. With strength he didn't know he had, Percy jumped and kicked off the wall, getting out of the way just in time to see the bull collide with it, shaking the whole building.

As it dislodged from the wall, one of its horns remained firmly inside.

That's my ticket!

Percy's ankle began swelling. He took in deep, ragged breaths. As the bull began to stalk towards him, he sprinted forwards. He quickly dropped to the floor and slid, sliding past the bull and reaching the wall. He ripped the horn out of the wall with a tug.

"Your story ends here." The bull growled, charging at Percy.

Percy gasped out in pain, his ankle giving out. He fell backwards onto the wall, and began hyperventilating.

Come on, Percy, you're better than this. He thought.

The bull charged, and Percy simply held the horn out in front of him, the point facing it. The bull rammed into Percy with enough force to send him crashing into the wall, ribs cracking.

Despite the haze of pain he was in, Percy managed to extract himself from the bull and crawl away.

The bull dropped to his knees. "You…you…"

"Yeah, I did." Percy said, grimacing in pain.

Seemingly phasing in and out of existence, it finally faded in an explosion of golden dust. The horn Percy used to kill it lay atop the dust.

Percy's sword dematerialized from the wall by the windows and reappeared as a watch on his wrist.

"Oh man," Percy gasped, propping himself up against the wall, when the hole he was thrown out of (from the bathroom) exploded.

Percy's heart dropped.

Surrounded by the dust of the wall, a true monster stood.

He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other obscure muscles, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black and white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

"Any chance you're the delivery guy?" Percy asked hopefully.

Snort. The Minotaur replied, saliva going flying out of his nose.

"Guess not."

The minotaur shot forward at Percy, multiple times faster than his son. Percy braced himself. This would be where he died.

"Screw the ancient laws!" He heard, and the minotaur was sent flying back as it's chest was impacted by a dull gray lance of what looked like light.

"Are you okay?" A girl asked as she appeared in front of Percy.

She had tanned skin, and glowing silver eyes. Dressed head to toe in a similarly colored armor, her right gauntlet was smoking.

"How did you…" Percy began, when a thought suddenly struck him. "Hey, wait! Is your name Zoe?"

Zoe's eyes widened. "Why yes, it is. Do you know me?"

"Sort of. I have dreams about you." Percy said, instantly turning red at what he'd just said. "Not like, sexual dreams, but like, memories. I don't know whose they are."

Zoe smiled warmly at him. "Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out. Do you mind if I take a look at your ankle?"

Percy nodded. "I don't know what happened to it, but I fell from pretty high up."

"You fell?" Zoe asked incredulously as she knelt and examined his ankle. "Percy, you'd need to have fallen from really high up for your ankle to have been hurt this bad."

"I did." Percy said sheepishly. "I was at the top of the dome, by the stained glass. I had this dumb idea that kind of worked."

"Kind of?" She questioned, removing a bag of what looked like cubes from her waist.

"I got the bull thing to be startled, but I couldn't attack because my sword got stuck up there and my ankle hurt. I killed it with this horn." Percy said, waving around the horn.

"Open up." Zoe instructed, popping a square in his mouth.

Percy chewed experimentally, before flinching for a second. "What is that?"

"Ambrosia." Zoe said, offering Percy her shoulder for balance. "It's godly stuff that heals demigods like you right up."

"Can I have some more?"

"No. At least, not for now." Zoe said. "The stuff heals, but too much of it can cause you to literally burn up. You don't have enough god in you to eat it as much as you want."

"Are you a goddess?" Percy asked curiously.

"It's complicated." Zoe laughed. "I'm immortal, and the daughter to a former Olympian. I guess I'm some sort of a goddess, for lack of a better term."

As they began to walk out, the Minotaur stirred again.

It angrily snorted, and Percy tensed up, but Zoe shook her head. "Hecate's got it."

Black mist settled around the Minotaur, encasing it from head to toe and making it impossible for it to move.

Boom.

The black mist sucked in and then imploded, causing it to go flying everywhere with no trace of the minotaur.

"Hecate? Like the goddess of magic?"

"Told you he'd know me." A second girl materialized next to him.

"Hey, you're the girl from earlier!" Percy recognized. "Did you know I'd be attacked?"

"Well, yes." Hecate said. "And I technically wasn't supposed to help at all"- she said this with a pointed look to Zoe- "but I tried my best to give you some hints."

"Where are we going?" Percy asked.

"See, normally, when a demigod comes of age and fights his or her first monster, they to to this camp immediately after." Hecate began to explain, little black figurines acting out what she was saying.

"Yeah, normally." Zoe continued. "You're special, Percy, and I'm sure you know that. That fall you took earlier should've done a lot more than just mangle your ankle. That should've broken your lower half."

"Not to mention, your satyr is shit." The mist swirled and made a frowny face. "We literally posed as two students here and he didn't say a word."

"My what now?" Percy sputtered. "Satyr? The goat thingies?"

"Well, not exactly"- Hecate began.

"Yup." Zoe assured. "Your friend Grover. Didn't you ever notice he seemed a bit too old to be in your grade? And his walk was kind of funny?"

"Well, yeah. I just didn't think much of it. People have walking problems…" Percy muttered the last part to himself.

"You're too trusting, Percy." Hecate reprimanded. "We could've been monsters, waiting to kill you."

"Uh, Zoe destroyed the Minotaur in one hit while it took me dumb luck to beat his son. I highly doubt I would've stood a chance either way."

Zoe patted his cheek. "Good boy."

They exited the museum, and Percy noted with a small bit of pride that the whole left side was demolished, and paramedics seemed to be crowding it.

"Now listen, Perce, when we get there, to need to stay close to us." Zoe warned.

"What? Why?" Percy asked suspiciously.

Hecate shook her head. "The hunt isn't a place for men, normally. But we sort of get a bit more leeway, considering we're Artemis' daughters."

Artemis. Percy's breath suddenly hitched. "Arty is going to be there?"

Zoe gave Hecate a knowing look, before turning to Percy. "I wouldn't call her that unless you two are alone, and even then I'd try not to. That's a very loaded nickname."

"Who gave her it?" Percy asked.

"Percy, I think you know the answer to that." Hecate replied quietly.

It was me.

"Did I die? Who was I before?" Percy began to ask. "These memories I have, they're mine aren't they?"

Zoe glared at Hecate. "You weren't supposed to let that one slip."

"Oh Hades." Percy swore. "If those memories are mine...you're my daughters?"

Hecate smiled at him weakly. "Surprise?"

"My head hurts." Percy mumbled.

"You and me both, dad." Zoe shot back, enjoying the look of discomfort on Percy's face. "Ready?"

"For what?"

"Oh, he's ready." Hecate affirmed mischievously.

All of the sound drained out of the world. Percy saw Zoe wink at him, and he saw her lips move, but he couldn't hear anything. Slowly, the world begin to spin. It spun faster and faster, until eventually everything began to blur together.

And then, just as slowly as it had started, the spinning stopped.

"How was it?" Zoe said, holding back laughter/

Percy didn't realize why until he noticed that he was clutching to Zoe like a child. Actually wait, no. It was more like Scooby and Shaggy in Scooby-Doo when they find the monster.

"Welcome to the hunt, dad." Zoe said, gesturing with her hand.

"Zoe, we're inside a tent." Percy pointed out.

"Buzzkill." Zoe said, adjusting so that Percy was more comfortably placed in her arms.

"Oh man, it's like you're the child here." Hecate laughed.

"I'm only 12, Hecate." Percy argued. "I am the child here."

"Hecate, Zoe." Percy heard a dangerously sweet voice say from the front of the tent. He craned his neck and saw a girl around his age. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made Percy catch his breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous.

"Mom." They both said together nervously.

"Did you know I love you?" Zoe said happily. "You're the best mom ever!"

"Yes!" Hecate pressed on. "And you're so beautiful, too! I had almost mistaken you for Aphrodite for a moment!"

They both looked at Perseus with a face that said "Go on, compliment her."

"Uh...you have a nice tent." Percy said wakradly. "I really like the color. It's not like a glaring, bright white, it's sort of softer, like an eggshell white. It rally does my eyes good."

Hecate face-palmed, and Zoe muttered to him, "Smooth dad, smooth."

Artemis glanced at Percy coldly for a moment. "Who is this male you have brought into our camp?"

"Heh, you see…" Hecate said. "This is dad."

Artemis blanched. "Wait..what?"

Percy gave a wave. "Hi."

Artemis turned and ran outside of the tent, leaving the flap, well, flapping wildly.

"We have so much explaining to do." Zoe mumbled.


	11. Training Begins

**Before I start, I'd just like to clear things up.**

 **AN: Yes, this is in the future. Perseus, after a series of events that has yet to be revealed, is somehow far ahead in the future, in the body of Percy Jackson, who was some lingering memories of his not so clear past and some lingering battle reflexes.**

 **It hasn't been revealed yet how he got here, or why. And it has yet to be revealed what happened in the time between Perseus' return and the birth of Percy Jackson, but that will be revealed through flashbacks.**

 **Sorry for the confusion.**

Percy woke with a start. His eyes opened and he found him myself face to face with the face of a humongous bear.

He bit back a scream, remembering that he was in Zoe's cabin.

After the girl, Artemis, had run out of the tent yesterday, Zoe offered to let Percy stay in hers, with a vague warning about mounted animal heads and pelts as trophies.

She was quite the hunteress, apparently. Her whole tent was filled with dozens of mounted heads, all over the place.

At the moment, Percy was actually on top of deer pelt, using wolf pelt as a blanket while his pillow was a rolled up bear pelt.

Yeah, Zoe was quite the huntress alright.

Percy checked his watch for a moment in the morning sunlight.

6:37, it read.

Well, maybe he could just close his eyes for a few minutes…

"Hey!" A bright voice yelled, and Percy yelped.

Zoe grinned at him as she walked inside of the tent. She had a bow slung over her shoulder, and a quiver of arrows.

"What's the bow for?" Percy asked blearily as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"You." She dropped the bow and quiver at his feet. "What, don't tell me you thought we brought you here to hang out!"

Percy yawned as he stood up and slung the bow and quiver over his shoulder. "I mean, I guess it makes sense. But why do I need to know this stuff?"

"Well, Percy," She said-last night, they agreed that it was too early for the whole dad thing- "You have godly blood flowing in your veins. That means that you'll attract monsters, who will in turn want to challenge you in hopes of beating you in battle. Killing you."

"Why?" Percy asked.

"That's just how it is. And, generally, the more of them you'll kill, the more dangerous the monster will become." Zoe explained patiently. "Now, your first two monsters were the legendary Minotaur and his kin. What does that tell you?"

"That I'm screwed." Percy said miserably.

"That you would be screwed if you had to fight another one." Zoe corrected. "Which is why I will be teaching you how to shoot and fight. When I'm with you, monsters will leave you alone."

The two walked out of Zoe's tent and to a firing range within the camp in a companionable silence. The firing range wasn't much, just a few rickety targets whose color had long faded.

"So...what are we doing?" Percy asked.

"Well, basically, we're going to have a coupon different aspects of your training, because we don't have much time." Zoe explained. "Olympus is in an uproar since Zeus' lightning bolt got stolen, and knowing your luck, you're going to get dragged into the whole mess."

"His bolt? Doesn't he even have a trillion or something?" Percy asked, confused. "He's the god of storms, right? Or at least the sky."

Zoe laughed at his confused look. "Percy, I'm not talking about your normal bolt. This thing is like four feet of purse celestial bronze, and has the power of twenty nukes."

Percy stared at her with his mouth hanging open.

"Yeah," Zoe agreed. "That's why it's such a big deal that it's been stolen. Could you imagine what would happen if it got in the wrong hands? Especially if it was another god?"

"War." Percy suggested.

"Yeah, except the entirety of America would be a battlezone and trust me- no mortal would survive." Zoe said.

Percy paled. "Well, then, do you know who stole it?"

Zoe got serious. "As of right now, no one. But, in a few weeks, they'll think it was you."

"Me?" Percy gulped. "Why? I haven't taken anything."

"I know you haven' me, Percy, do you know who your godly parent is?" Zoe asked.

"No."

"Well spoiler alert, it's Poseidon." Zoe said. "And, although every freaking god or goddess on Olympus knows this, Poseidon would never ever steal anything from his brother- he's too loyal. Zeus, however, is very defensive of his power, and when Poseidon reveals that he's had a son this whole time, what do you think will happen?"

"Zeus will think he enlisted me to steal the bolt for him." Percy said, putting two and two together. "It makes sense. Or at least, it would, if I were him

Zoe clicked her tongue. "That's it. Tell me, do you remember any of your other instances with Zeus? You know, from the past?"

Percy closed his eyes and tried to think back. "Uh, not really. I have some of a woman named Athena."

"That's the Goddess of Wisdom and battle strategy. She was your mother before."

"Is she still my mother?"

Zoe's lips turned into a thin line. "Percy, you're entering an area of questions I've been sworn to not answer. Please stop asking them, because I don't want to end up having to fade."

"Can you tell me who swore you to secrecy?"

"You did." Zoe said unexpectedly. "Now, training."

"When do we start?" Percy said, wisely not pushing the subject. He could tell it was a sore one.

Well, he tried putting himself in Zoe's shoes. Or at least, partially in them. She was doing better than he would, given what he could glean from her about the situation thus far.

"Now." Zoe grinned at him, and snapped her fingers. Percy dropped to the ground, gasping. It felt like there was an eighteen-wheeler weighing him down. "Why can't I move?"

"Invisible weights." Zoe grinned. "Now take a couple laps around this camp."

"A couple? Zoe, that's like four miles." Percy whined.

"You know, I could always chase you with a sword…"

Percy got up with a struggle and began to run around.

"Gets them everytime." She chuckled.

As Percy completed his run, panting and sweating up a storm, Zoe gestured for him to come to her.

She snapped her fingers again, and a giant bowl of water appeared. She sat next to it, cross-legged, and gestured for Percy to do the same. "Hit it."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Hit the water, Percy."

Percy gave her a weird look, but obliged. A little bit of water went flying out.

"Harder."

More water came out.

"Harder."

This continues for a few minutes. Percy's bowl soon emptied, and Zoe snapped her fingers, refilling it.

This process continued for a few hours, which surprised Zoe pleasantly.

Yet, even Percy had his limits. "What am I gaining from this? This isn't making me stronger at all! I'm going to die if you keep doing this!"

Zoe raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like the next time I see the Minotaur I can slap some water at it and kill it!" Percy ranted. "I have sat here for hours doing nothing but slapping water!"

Zoe raised her hand, and Peru feel quiet. She took a deep breath. "There was a young boy who wanted to learn martial arts from the best instructor he could find. His parents supported his wish, and they stood by him as he searched high and low for masters of different arts. He'd find a brilliant instructor, go to his school, and hear a rumor of an even better instructor and follow that rumor to a new instructor. All the while, he never took a single lesson, as he wanted to learn from the best, and couldn't afford to enroll in all these many schools."

Percy sat back, enraptured by the story.

"During his entire search, he heard whispers of an old, simple man with no school of his own who could teach anyone incredible things. Eventually, the boy found a huge school with a renowned master who he was convinced was the best instructor in all of China. Just before he entered the school to try to gain admittance, an elderly man pulled him aside, told him he knew he'd been searching for martial arts instruction and that he could help. They sat at a table and he told the boy that he was the man who taught the master of this school, and in six weeks he could teach the boy enough that the boy would gain great strength, as well as the ability to learn incredible techniques in the future."

"How long ago was this? Did the boy have a name?"

"Percy, it's just a story." Zoe stressed. "Now let me finish. The boy was, of course, suspicious. The man stood up, raised his hand above his head, and brought it down swiftly on the center of the table, breaking it cleanly in half. The boy was shocked, and quickly agreed that he would be honored to study under this man."

"Can I have him as a teacher?" Percy grumbled. "I bet he wouldn't make me slap water."

Zoe smirked. "They went to the man's house. He took a barrel and filled it with water. He said 'slap the water' and the boy did, again and again."

"I spoke too soon." Percy realized, embarrassed.

Zoe nodded. "When the water level was low enough that the boy could no longer easily slap it, the man had him fill the water back up and continue. This continued for hours, which stressed into days. The boy put up with it because of how eager he was to learn, but after a week he had had enough. Frustrated, he told the elderly man he was ready to do something more advanced. The man simply shook his head and pointed back at the water barrel. Occasionally the man would have to talk the boy into continuing, but for six weeks he slapped water out of a barrel every day for hours and hours each day."

"Hours and hours?" Percy moaned. "Well, at least I'm alive."

"Anyway, At the end of the six weeks, the man told him that he could go home, but should come back when he was ready to move on to more advanced techniques. The boy asked when he would be ready if he wasn't yet. The man simply said, 'you'll know.' The boy was understandably fed up with what he felt was a waste of six weeks he could have spent learning, but he nonetheless thanked the elderly man and went home."

Zoe stood. "Now this is where it gets interesting. When he told his family what he'd been doing for the past six months, they laughed. They mocked him incessantly. He was a very patient young man, so he didn't complain. He sat at the dinner table while they berated him, and eventually he had had enough. Furious, he stood up and, while yelling the word 'stop', slammed his hands down onto-and directly through-the three inch thick marble table they were eating at. It broke in half."

"What?" Percy asked, astonished. "Was this guy a god or something?"

"Nope." Zoe replied. "Just a mortal."

"And he broke marble? Three inches?"

"A lot can come from being patient and hardworking, Percy." Zoe told him. "Now slap that water."

And slap he did. With little complaint, Percy ate, drank, ran, slapped the water, and slept. He did this for a few weeks, until one day Zoe didn't conjure a bowl.

She just stood in front of him. Out of nowhere, her fist snapped up and rocked Percy's body. "Defend yourself by any means necessary."

"What the hell!" Percy sword, massaging his right cheek, where a huge bruise was forming.

"I said defend yourself!" Zoe yelled. She sped forward with her hands at her side.

Percy dropped under her next strike with reflexes he didn't know he had. He caught her next punch in his hand.

"Good," Zoe commented pleasantly. "You picked up on it fast. Now let's take it up a notch."

"Wait-" Percy began, but was cut off by Zoe's leg ramming into his head.

He hit the ground hard.

Zoe helped him up. "I think you need a little hint. That slapping exercise I had you do was called the Iron Palm Technique. It's built to not only help your strength, but your patience and mental fortitude as well."

Percy's eyes dawned with realization. "That's how I caught your punch."

Zoe nodded. "If you'd tried to have caught that punch when you first got here it would've broken your whole arm."

"So you want me to use that to my advantage?" Percy asked.

"Obviously not." Zoe replied sarcastically. "I want you to keep getting pummeled into the ground."

"Oh, very funny Zoe." Percy shot back just as sarcastically as he got back up.

Zoe sunk back into her stance. "Again."

Ten minutes later, a battered Percy lay next to a humming Zoe as she sharpened some arrows. "How are you teeling?"

"Like I got run over by a truck over and over." Percy moaned from his heap on the ground.

"Ah, well, thank you very much." Zoe replied. "Are you ready for your second part of training today?"

"My body hurts."

"Good. You're ready." Zoe said, standing up and pulling a bow off her back. She laid the sharpened arrows down next to Percy.

Percy looked at the bow with a confused expression. "But...I already have a bow on my watch. I can just use that."

Zoe laughed for a moment. "This is a little tough to explain, but that bow is special. For the most part, it'll always shoot straight, and you don't even need an arrow. You can just pull back and one will appear. Not to mention, it's enchanted."

"So…."

"So," Zoe continued. "It's powerful and easy to use."

She tossed him the bow. "This bow, not so much. That was my first bow, and as you can tell"- she gestured to the various cuts on the bow and frayed parts of the string- "it's seen a lot. It's also really horribly weighted and hard to pull back- it was made for a being with Titanic strength."

Percy expirementall held the bow. "Weighted? So you're telling me that this bow won't even shoot straight half the time?"

Zoe nodded. "Glad you caught on."

Percy inspected it. "Is there some other story to this?"

"Nope, I just want you to suffer," Zoe replied cheerfully. "But, there is a reason. So the bow you have in your watch, like I said is enchanted. That means that even if you were the worst archer in the world, you'd probably still hit your target as long as you aimed the bow in the general direction."

"Isn't that good? The minotaur was huge!"

"Maybe in a one on one situation, but chances are if you have your bow out you're either far away or there are more than one opponent." Zoe countered. "That's completely disregarding stealth, too. What if you only have one shot to take someone out without his friends finding out?"

"Okay, okay. I get it."

"Using this bow will force you to be deadly accurate in the worst of conditions, so that when you use your bow, you'll be like a laser. That's also why we're using the weights." Zoe explained. "They're weighing down on you a lot, so when I take them off of you you'll be much faster. This is all about conditioning."

"Conditioning? That makes me sound like I'm getting ready for football in the fall." Percy joked.

"Sure thing," Zoe agreed. "Except now, its life and death. And the other team consists of thousands of years old monsters who want to tear you apart."

"Right. Nearly the same."

Zoe shook her head at Percy and stood. "Alright, stand up. First off, you're going to want to stand upright with your feet shoulder width apart, and feet at 90 degrees to the target. This 90 degrees thing isn't always going to happen when you're crouched, or running and gunning, but it's good to build your foundation off of. Basically, imagine that there is a straight line coming down from the target, and place your feet pointing at that line."

Percy did as he was asked, with Zoe nudging his feet a bit with hers. "Okay, good. Now here, hold this bow."

Percy grasped the bow. His fingers immediately sunk into the grooves already put there by Zoe, and he grinned. "Well hey, at least I have this here."

"Yeah, well, those may not help." Zoe muttered. "Anyway, next, you should position the fingers on the string with the index finger above the arrow and two fingers below-the string should sit in the last crease of your fingers."

Percy did as she asked.

"You're much better at following directions now." Zoe praised. "Pull back the string using your back muscles, not your bicep/arm. Pull back the string so that the index finger of the pulling hand is under the chin, and the string touches your nose and lips. Then, aim with your dominant eye and allow your fingers to slip backward."

Percy took a deep breath and released the string.

Zoe laughed as the arrow went flying way over the target and out of sight. "Okay, we have work to do."

Percy frowned. "I did everything right."

Zoe clicked her tongue. "Practice makes perfect, Percy. And practice we will. Once you get the bow down, we'll start the sword, and the dagger. After, if we have time, I'll get you started on your powers."

"This is going to be a long few weeks." Percy muttered.

"Yes it is." Zoe said cheerfully. "Shoot again."

 **AN: That's about it for this chapter. Sorry for the late upload but I had finals...now it's summer! I'll do my absolute best to whip up quick chapters now since I have more free time! See you next time!**


	12. Quest and Cosmo

"Come on, Percy," Zoe called. "You're lagging behind." She slipped under a jab.

Percy backed up a few steps, breathing heavily. He twirled two daggers while glaring at Zoe. "You're a goddess, with eons of battle experience. I, or any other mortal, shouldn't be able to hit you."

"And you're a demigod of an Olympian with my blessing and a month or two of my training," Zoe countered. "You're not 'any other mortal'."

Percy flipped the dagger in his left hand, and rushed forward at Zoe. He kicked a clump of dirt at her face, and slashed diagonally. She chuckled as the dirt went sailing over her head and she deflected the slash and followed it with her own.

Percy caught the slash with his left dagger. "I think I prefer holding the daggers like this."

"I figured you would. Provides for more flexibility." Zoe said, backing up.

She yelled, and blazed in front of Percy.

Fast, Percy had time to think before he barely ducked under her dagger. He clanged his dagger off of he next strike, and kicked her in the chest.

She came back instantly, slashing a gash in Percy's cheek before sweeping his legs from under him.

Percy recovered quickly, unclipping a knife from his belt and throwing it at her. It zipped through the air, heading right towards Zoe before she caught it. "Tsk, tsk."

Percy grinned as the knife was thrown back to him.

Zoe backed up a few steps. "Not bad, Percy, not bad at all. Let's go again."

"Ahem." Percy and Zoe turned to the source of the voice. Artemis stood a few feet off from them, but she wasn't in her twelve year old form.

She was in her adult form, and she looked serious- more serious than usual. "Zoe, it's time."

Zoe glanced back and forth between Percy and Artemis, still panting from her duel. She nodded, albeit sadly.

Percy caught the interaction. Along with his physical conditioning and weapons training, Zoe had also trained Percy to be more attentive to detail.

"Is it time?" Percy asked, although Zoe's morose expression gave him the answer.

"Yes." Artemis said stoically, although Percy noticed that it seemed to be a facade. "Zeus demanded that I hunt you down and bring you to Olympus."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Always the dramatic one, mother."

She came forward and wrapped Percy in a hug. "Percy, you're going to be perfectly fine. I may not have been able to train you for a long time, but you're definitely ready."

Percy buried his face in Zoe's shoulder. "Thank you, Zoe." He whispered. "I'll come back, I promise. Take care of yourself and Hecate."

Zoe nodded and gave him a sad smile. "I will. Now go. Zeus isn't a very patient man."

Percy nodded, remembering the rundown Zoe had given him of Olympus. "Bye."

Artemis watched the interaction with a melancholic expression. "Come now, Percy."

Percy nodded and walked beside Artemis. She touched his shoulder briefly, and the world disappeared in a flash.

When Percy opened his eyes, he was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air.

Below him was what looked to be Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. In front of him, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky.

From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow.

Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces-a city of mansions-all with white columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires.

Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow.

Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rose bushes. Percy could make out an open air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other.

Artemis began to urge him to walk forward. Quietly, she said, "Zoe probably warned you about this, but do not, under any circumstances, give any indication to your past memories. If anyone were to suspect you of being a god reforming, you would be forced to engage in a situation you wouldn't walk away from."

"They'd kill me?" Percy asked. "Is that what happened the first time around?"

"No." Artemis said simply. "Let's go."

Artemis led Percy past two giant doors, into a room. Twelve thrones, built for gargantuan beings, were arranged in an inverted U.

An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were all full. Percy instantly felt like the air around him got heavier, and he felt a strong tingling sensation all over him, like he was being burnt alive.

Percy absently wondered if Artemis had been holding back her power with him so he wouldn't feel this sensation.

The room grew very quiet, and Percy walked to the foot of Zeus' throne and knelt. "My lord."

Zeus looked smug for a moment. "You kneel before me rather than your own father?"

"It is only right to address the master of the house first." Percy replied respectfully.

"Good." Zeus commented, before he turned a bit angrier. The air around Percy began to crackle. "Where is it?"

"Where is what, my lord?"

"My bolt, boy." Zeus roared, standing up forcefully. "Answer before you become a smear on the ground."

"I swear upon the River Styx that I have never, ever been in any contact with Lord Zeus' bolt in my twelve years of life." Lightning flashed across the throne room, and Percy stood up.

Zeus angrily sat down. Poseidon spoke, "I told you, brother. My son has nothing to do with the disappearance of your bolt."

"You still claim him, then?" Zeus scoffed.

"Yes. The boy is my son." Poseidon said, looking at Percy. Despite his training from Zoe, it was hard to read him. There was no clear sign of love or approval. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious.

Zeus scoffed again. "Breaking the oath...I ought to kill the boy now."

Percy's hand inched towards his daggers. If he was going down, he wasn't going down without a fight.

"At peace, young man." Percy heard a feminine voice say. He turned to the voice, and saw a woman with intelligent grey eyes and slightly tanned skin. She wore a plain dress, but had this intimidating air about her.

"Yes, Lady Athena." Percy said and dropped his hand away from the daggers.

"We will not be killing this demigod." Athena said calmly, daring anyone to speak. "How long will we hide from the prophecy?"

Prophecy? Percy thought. How does this connect to me?

"I second that, sister." Artemis nodded. "I believe that rather than being a hindrance, this boy could prove to be a great asset to Olympus."

Zeus leaned back into his seat, deep in thought. "All right. Let's put this up to a decision. All those in favor of killing the boy?"

Ares, Dionysus, and Zeus raised their hands. Zeus made a hmm noise. "I see. Well then, I will still not allow this boy to roam free."

He glanced down at Percy. "Boy?"

"Yes, my lord?" Percy replied, his green eyes gazing at Zeus intently.

"You will find who took my bolt, and kill them. Then, you will return my bolt to me." Zeus said calmly. "If you will fail, I will smite you."

Percy swallowed the lump in his throat. "Yes, my lord."

"You have a month. Council dismissed." Zeus disappeared in a monstrous bolt of lightning.

Percy let out a breath of relief. Having an immensely powerful being debate whether or not to kill you was nerve wracking.

After Zeus departed, most of the other gods and goddesses also departed. The only ones that remained were Athena, Poseidon, and Artemis.

Artemis walked over to Percy. She gazed at him for a moment. "Do not die on this quest. I'll be assisting Zoe with your training once you return, do it would be unfortunate."

"Understood." Percy replied, nodding. "I'll be fine."

Her face softened. "Please, Percy. Be careful."

Percy gave her a smile and thumbs up. "You guys have nothing to worry about. Thanks for everything."

Artemis nodded and wiped her eyes before she placed her hand on Percy's shoulder. "I'm going to transport you to Camp Half-Blood. It would be wise to find some questmates rather than simply heading out on your own."

Percy nodded, and the world spun around him. When he came to, he was standing on a hill overlooking what seemed to be a normal summer camp at first glance. A giant, arching entrance towered over him, with a Greek inscription that read: "Camp Half-Blood".

The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture, things like an open air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range.

As Percy walked past the entrance, he noted that he stepped through a light green bubble that seemingly encased the entirety of the camp.

"Ah, Perseus," Percy heard as he saw Mr. Brunner wheel up to him, as if he had been expecting him.

"Mr. Brunner," Percy replied, respectfully tilting his head.

"Now, now." Mr. Brunner said as he waved his arms. "No need for that. I think you know who I am."

"Chiron." Percy said, unsurely.

"That is correct. I assume Zoe filled you in on a lot of things. Terribly sorry for making you fight, by the way. It just would have seemed off if you up and vanished out of nowhere." Chiron said. "Alas, that is all beside the point, is it not? How about I give you the tour of the camp, and you fill me in on your situation as we go along, hm?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good to me."

"You must excuse me for a moment." Chiron said with a laugh. "I did not expect you to be this, well, informed, so I kept myself in this wheelchair. I didn't want to scare you too much. Since you're obviously a little farther along than I expected, I'd like to get rid of this infernal contraption."

"By all means," Percy said as he backed up.

Chiron gasped as his blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. Rather than having the naked lower half of a human- thank Hades for that- it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.

As Percy took a second look at the wheelchair, he deduced that it was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and definitely, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

Percy let out a whistle. "That must feel amazing."

"You have no idea, Perseus," Chiron said as let out a long, comfortable sigh. "Now, shall we?"

Chiron lead Percy around the camp, pointing out key places, like the volleyball pit and the armory. "Will you be staying at all?"

Percy shrugged. "Honestly, Chiron, I don't think I should. Lord Zeus has given me a months' time to find the one who stole his bolt, or else I get the axe."

Chiron sighed. "That man...oh well. Regardless, your timing is impeccable. A new camper has just received a prophecy for a quest, and I'll get you onto that team."

"Who's the kid?" Percy asked curiously.

"Nico DiAngelo- son of Hades." Chiron said as he and Percy began to approach a house. It was four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort.

"So all 3 of the elder gods broke their pact?"

"Eh, Nico was technically born before the pact was created." Chiron said. "Hades had just hidden him and his sister somewhere from Olympus until recently."

"Lord Zeus suspected them of being the thieves." Percy guessed.

"Right in one, Perseus." Chiron said as he gestured for Percy to enter the house. "This is the Big House. Upstairs in the attic is the Oracle. Normally, to embark on quest you need to receive a prophecy but the thing is, Nico received one last night."

Prophecies were fickle things, Percy recalled Zoe saying. "Would it be wise for the two of us to go on a quest together? I understand that higher level monsters go for higher level demigods."

Chiron shrugged. "Either you take the risk or you die, it appears. For what it's worth, Perseus, I think you'll be fine."

I hope so, Perseus thought.

"Chiron! Chiron!" A new voice said as a boy came stumbling into the Big House.

"Ah, Perseus, this is Nico." Chiron said awkwardly as Nico picked himself up.

"Hi." Perseus said, hiding his discomfort. He turned and gave Chiron a look that clearly said really?

"Hi!" Nico replied as he got up.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Nico, Perseus here will be accompanying you on your quest."

"Oh, hey!" Nico said excitedly. "We're going to have a fun time!"

"Er, Nico, perhaps it would be wise to tell Perseus the prophecy first." Chiron suggested.

"Oh, right!" Nico remembered. "It went: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall he betrayed by one who calls you a you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."

Percy bit his cheek while Nico recited the prophecy. Why would anyone be happy after hearing that?

Chiron tittered- a sign of nervousness, Percy expected. "Ah, well, traditional quests have three people, including a satyr, so I'm assuming that"-

The air behind him shimmered, and a blonde girl with gray eyes appeared, stuffing a baseball cap into her pocket. "I'm in. I've been waiting a long time for a quest." she said.

"I'm not sure you quite understand the magnitude of this quest, Annabeth."Chiron countered. "Although Nico here doesn't know who his godly parent is quite yet, Perseus is the son of Poseidon. You would attract a myriad of dangerous enemies."

Ah, so Nico wasn't aware of his father, Percy noticed, filing it away for later.

"All the more reason to have an extra person. Besides, Perseus"- she said Perseus with a tone of disgust- "isn't even a member of the camp. So, officially, it would be Nico, a satyr, and I, along with some help."

"That could work." Chiron replied, glancing at Perseus. "What is your take on this, Perseus?"

Percy shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. Any amount of risk is better than the alternative, and I'm assuming Annabeth is confident in her skills to want to join such a high profile quest."

Annabeth scoffed. "And what about you? You think you could beat me?"

Percy grinned at her expression. "Easily."

"Now, children," Chiron interrupted. "I think you should go pack up for this quest, as it could be a while before you return to camp. When you're ready, Argus will meet at you at the edge of camp and drop you off at a New York bus station."

-Ω-

After a slightly disgruntled Argus (Nico had wanted to poke all of his eyes) dropped the trio of demigods and Grover off at a New York bus station, Percy and Grover walked up to the ticket counter.

Under the luminous sign that read "TICKETS HERE" sat a dumpy old lady who seemed to be humming while reading a magazine.

Grover cleared his throat, and she began glaring at him. After giving him a suspicious once over, the woman returned to her reading.

"Can't you see I'm busy here?" She said snarkily as she continued to read, flipping the page loudly.

"But, ma'am"-

"Listen, kid. I'm sure you got problems. Hell, we all do. But your problem is not more important than this Cosmo quiz to find out what kind of horse I'd be- got it?" She said, showing Grover the cover of her Cosmopolitan magazine.

A few minutes later, she gave a relieved sigh. "Oh, thank goodness. I got the Haflinger. It says here that this breed was developed in the late 19th century in Austria and Northern Italy. Haflingers are generally compact and chestnut in color. They have a distinctive gait that is described as being both energetic and smooth, and they are well-muscled yet elegant horses. While this specific breed was developed in the late 19th century, its ancestry can be traced back to the middle ages. Haflingers were developed for mountain terrain and are known for their hardiness. Can you believe that?"

Grover swallowed nervously. "That's amazing."

Percy groaned, and reached forward. He snatched the magazine out of the woman's hand. "Can it, 're not getting this back until you sell us our tickets."

"How may I help you?" The old woman said venomously, mumbling under her breath about kids nowadays not having any respect.

"4 tickets as far west as you can take us." Percy replied, not put off at all by the woman's tone.

She looked down at a book for a few moments, before looking back up. "Farthest I can take you right now is Indiana. Then, you're on your own."

"Alright, that works." Percy said, giving the woman her magazine back.

"That'll be $200." She said, handing him the tickets.

Percy snapped his fingers, and the woman sat upright. "We already paid for our tickets. Also, you hate Cosmopolitan."

"Right," The woman said, her eyes clouded. "Have a good day, sweetheart."

Percy grinned as he heard her throw the magazine away with a noise of anger. "Let's head back, Grover."

AN: I mean no disrespect to anyone who reads Cosmopolitan*


	13. Flo's Diner

"Well?" Annabeth asked as Percy and Grover returned.

Percy held up the 4 tickets. "Hitched us a ride to Indiana."

"How much was it?" Nico asked.

"It was free." Percy smirked. "Courtesy of the desk lady."

Annabeth looked at Percy suspiciously, as she had been doing since they met. "It doesn't work that way."

"The Mist works in mysterious ways." Percy said simply, as Annabeth huffed and turned away.

A part of Percy was amused at Annabeth. It was in the nature of a child of Athena's to be curious, after all. He understood that more than just about anyone. Most of Percy, however, was annoyed.

As the unlikely quartet waited for their bus, Percy reflected a bit on where he was, strength wise.

After sifting through some more of his memories, Percy stumbled upon a sort of ranking system that he had used to aid the hunters' growth.

It was basically a letter series from A to F, A being the best and F being the worst.

If he had to gauge his strength right now, he'd have to say that he was overall a high D or a low C. Percy's hand to hand combat was around a C, and his archery and accuracy with things such as throwing knives was bordering a B. Unfortunately, Percy had practically no idea how to use his powers (whether that be from Poseidon or his past), and that severely handicapped him.

Not to mention, his legendary speed wasn't anywhere close to where it should be.

And, his Battle I.Q. was still nowhere to be found.

Hades, don't even look at the way-

"Yo, Perce," Grover said, snapping. "Bus is here, man."

"Alright." Percy said, getting on the bus.

The bus driver glanced at him, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. "Where ya goin?"

"Indiana. My three friends and I." Percy replied, giving the man the four tickets.

He checked them and nodded in affirmation. "Take a seat, kid."

Percy looked back. "Let's take back left and right."

As they got on the bus, Percy couldn't help but notice a few odd people looking up as they passed.

Odd people in New York wasn't a new occurence by any stretch, Percy mused. However, these weren't odd as in please stay away from me odd, but rather almost inhuman.

The first row of people Percy passed were men wearing trench coats and over the top fedoras the covered their eye line completely. Maybe one of these men would be okay, because what's the city without one or two shady guys, but a whole row?

After them was a cheer team, or at least a part of one. There were about four or five girls dressed head to toe in what Percy guessed was a competition costume.

"Hey, boy." One of them winked. "Wanna party?"

"Nah," Percy grinned. "Thanks for the offer. You girls the Yancy Cheer Team?"

"Yeah!" One of them said brightly. "Just won a competition! We're, like, top."

Percy finished the conversation fairly early and decided to keep walking.

Once again, there's nothing wrong with there being a cheer team. The wrong part was that Yancy- Percy's old school- didn't even have a cheer team. Even worse, Percy could faintly make out the thin layer of mist that was pooling around them.

Percy wasn't skilled enough to see entirely past it, but he didn't really need to see past it to know it was there.

Okay, so there were at least ten or so enemies to fight, Percy guessed. He was confident he could take 10. Maybe 15. 20 was pushing it, but luckily there weren't that many.

Percy toyed with the idea of telling someone, but immediately dispelled it. Up until an hour ago, Nico didn't know how to hold a sword. Grover still was intimidated by old women.

Annabeth? Percy thought with a glance at his half-sister. Right off the bat, just from her posture, Percy could assume that Annabeth would hold her own in a fight.

The question now became was that enough?

Percy took the seat next to Annabeth as they neared the back of the bus and leaned in. "How many monsters can you fight at once?"

Her intelligent eyes widened a bit. In a hushed tone, she replied, "I could take a couple. Five, ten. Probably more, if you're helping."

Percy let out a small sigh of relief. "Don't react, but I think there are a few monsters on this bus."

Annabeth's mouth opened slightly.

Percy pushed on. "I say we don't tell Nico And Grover. I don't know much about Nico but he'd fold, and I've known Grover for a while- he's toast. Can I trust you?"

"Yes." Annabeth said with a steely resolve. "I won't let you down."

"I know. I'm not sure when they'll attack, but let's just ride it out." Percy suggested.

It was interesting, really.

Percy kept his eyes on the cheerleaders and trench coat guys the whole time the bus was in New York, but they didn't bother moving.

In fact, for a moment or two, Percy was second guessing himself. Maybe his nerves were just frayed…

Until…

To pass out of New York, the bus driver decided that he would take a tunnel. As they passed under, and everything became illuminated orange, one of the cheerleaders suddenly got up and walked up towards the driver.

The men in the trench coats stood up and looked back, right at Percy.

"Guys," Percy warned. "Hold on!"

The bus driver was suddenly tossed into the back of the bus, a jagged red line across his throat. The cheerleader that did the deed looked at Percy and winked saucily. "Ready to play?"

Percy grinned, his body tensing. "Am I ever."

"Good," She said,cranking the steering wheel to the left.

The bus slammed into the side of the tunnel, but Percy was ready. He grabbed Annabeth to keep her from colliding with the wall and kicked open the emergency door at the back. "Grover, Nico, out now!"

Nico yelled frantically and dived over Grover- who was sitting closest to the aisle- and jumped out of the bus.

Grover tumbled out after him.

"Well," Percy said to Annabeth. "Let's go."

Percy was nervous enough about fighting, but fighting with cars zooming by him was a whole other level of nervous.

The cheerleading squad entered out of the bus' doors.

One by one, each began to grow taller and wider, straining the tiny cheerleader uniforms to the brink.

Their admittedly beautiful faces began to contort and grow into ugly and wide.

Percy shuddered as he saw a few of them with tattoos chest bump.

The trench coated men also began to grow in a fashion similar to the cheerleaders.

"Giants." Percy said, pulling it out his daggers.

"Perseus Jackson." One of them said, their muscles rippling. "I will personally see to sending you to Hades."

"Yeah, well, I guess we're going to have to wait and see what happens." Percy shot back.

He looked back for a moment. "So, uh, be careful of the cars."

With that, Percy shot forward, twirling his two daggers.

He ducked under the first giant's swing and stuck the dagger in her heart. He jumped up, wrapped his legs around the giant's head and ripped the dagger out.

The giant fell over, dead, and Percy stood up and brushed his jeans off. "Who else wants some?"

Another giant ambled over to the middle of the tunnel, and smashed his hand down on the hood of a car.

It crashed under the force of his smack, and the giant picked it up and threw it at Percy.

Percy backed up a few feet and ducked, and the car went flying into the other side of the tunnel, causing dozens of cars to go careening into each other.

"Waste of a perfectly good Toyota." Percy commented.

"How can you be so calm right now?" Grover yelled from behind him, scared.

Percy turned his view to Nico for a second, and he saw the tell tale sign of fear written clearly over his body.

War, even it's slightest form was a horrible thing, and no one knew that better than Perseus. It would twist and chip away at you innocence until there was nothing left but a cold shell.

Sadly, not everyone was equipped to deal with it, and especially not a young boy like Nico.

"Hey, Nico," Percy called with a lopsided grin. "Ease up, man. I'm not letting you die, alright?"

Percy's words had their intended effect, and Nico nodded before giving him a small smile.

"You too, Grover. Just relax, and we'll be out of here before you know it."

While Percy was giving Nico and Grover his pep talk, Annabeth had gone to work on the giants.

Percy eyed her two kills closely. The first had a clean line across its throat, so Percy assumed that was an easy victory for Annabeth.

The second one wasn't nearly as clean. Percy winced slightly at the sight of the giant's head being squashed under a car.

The my sport is your punishment bumper sticker seemed ironic at the moment.

The most likely scenario was that another giant sought to help his or her buddy out and tossed a car at Annabeth. Annabeth, being small, nimble, and not stupid, ducked out of the way and let the giant take the hit for her.

Annabeth 2, Giants 0.

Not bad, Percy mused as he walked up to her. "Need some help?"

Annabeth grinned at him, slightly out of breath. "I haven't had this much fun in a while. You don't get to do this kind of stuff in camp."

"Yeah, well, I think killing someone would be frowned upon," Percy laughed as he engaged a giant in combat. "Even with Chiron's blind spot for his favorites taken into account."

Annabeth rolled her eyes as she picked her dagger up off of the floor. "You seem close with Chiron."

Percy jumped over the giant's haphazard swing and delivered a kick to its knee, forcing it down. There was a quick flash of his daggers, and a head was rolling on the floor. "I was, at a time. I left camp for a while."

Annabeth looked at him for a moment before she began to fight one of the last giants. "You don't look much older than me." She said as she was pushed back by the collision of blades.

"I'm not," Percy said as he shifted alongside her to fight. "We're the same age."

Annabeth ducked under a slow punch and left a pattern of crisscrossing slashes on the giant. "You seem battle hardened. And your dagger skills are as good as mine, if not better, and I've been training since I was a kid."

"Astute. You definitely live up to your parentage." Percy complimented as he debated what to tell her.

Pushing a giant back and slicing its chest across the center, Percy shrugged. "I was taken in by a goddess when I was younger and she taught me how to be a warrior," he said, giving her a modified version of his training with Zoe.

Annabeth's eyes widened slightly. "That's..huge. What are you even doing back here then?"

Percy shrugged again as he cleaned his blade against his shirt. "The King of Olympus has convicted me of stealing his bolt, and I have a month to find it or I'm toast. Just like that, Nico happened to get a quest and I was instructed by the goddess I mentioned earlier to go on this quest. So I'm here to help."

Annabeth nodded quietly. "Glad to have you here. What do we do now?"

Percy grinned and walked up to one of the cars in the tunnel that had long since been abandoned. "We borrow a car."

"Isn't that illegal?" Annabeth questioned.

"Your mother is an Ancient Greek deity, we walk around with weapons on us at all times, we just fought off monsters from Greek mythology and our friend back there is a Satyr. I think taking a car is the least of our worries." Percy countered as he got in the driver seat. "Sweet, they left their wallet and keys in the ignition."

"Do you know how to drive?" Annabeth asked as she got in shotgun.

"Yeah, I value my life!" Grover added with a distressed bleat.

"I trust Percy." Nico replied, buckling in his seatbelt.

"I mean, in theory, I do." Percy muttered as he slammed the accelerator and they took off flying.

"Percy," Annabeth warned as they went zooming past down the tunnel. "You're going 90."

"Eh, calm down." Percy replied as he turned on the radio. Africa by Toto came on. "Oh, I love this song."

A few minutes later, Nico, Annabeth, and Grover had fallen asleep. Percy rolled his eyes.

All in all, he was satisfied with the fight. He hadn't been tired out too much, he wasn't hurt, and neither was anyone else.

Grover and Nico were prone to fear, it appeared. Percy chuckled at the thought of a child of Hades being afraid to die, but he guessed that Nico didn't know.

Eyeing Nico from the rear view mirror, Percy vowed to keep any eye on him when he could. Children of the Elder gods tended to have alot of power at their fingertips at a young, and as a result, they often wound up dead.

Not by choice, obviously, but power attracted attention- not all of it wanted.

Percy merged onto the highway, almost hitting 4 other cars in the process.

Eh, he thought. They'll live.

As a car passed by with an angry old man yelling at Percy from the backseat, Percy began to think about why anyone would steal Zeus' bolt.

Well, aside from the massive power that it contained. The power to level entire continents in a strike? Yeah, Percy could see the promise behind stealing it.

But the risk? That outweighed it did it not? What could possibly be worth a full blown war on Olympus.

Percy's eyes widened. What if that was the point of the theft?

Absentmindedly glancing at Annabeth shift in her sleep, Percy began to run through a list of gods that could be behind this- who could possibly gain anything from full blown war?

He immediately ruled out Poseidon. Although Percy's previous memories of Poseidon clashed with his observations of Poseidon in the throne room a while back, Percy was still entirely confident he'd never do such a thing. Poseidon was one of the most loyal gods in Olympus.

For those reasons (or those similar to), he ruled out Hestia, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Demeter.

Giving it some more thought, Percy also added Hermes, Hephaestus, and Hera to the list of people who couldn't have possibly orchestrated this.

The list of suspects right now consisted of: Zeus, Hades, Ares, and Dionysus.

Zeus might seem like a sort of out of place candidate, but Percy considered the classic it was him all along scenario. Percy couldn't imagine the situation exactly , but if there were hypothetically something Zeus wanted to hide, he could hide his bolt and cause an uproar over it, allowing whatever he wished to hide be hidden behind the consternation. Unlikely, Percy conceded, but not impossible.

Dionysus, too, was an unlikely candidate. Percy could somewhat imagine a scenario where Dionysus, bitter at his father for his punishment, stole the bolt. It also helped (or didn't help) that Dionysus was in charge of Camp Half Blood, so it would have been all too easy to find the help necessary to orchestrate it. However, at the moment, Percy was dissuaded simply due to the fact that he'd spared Dionysus a glance while entering the Big House- it was a miracle the man moved!

That led Percy to his final, and most probable two candidates.

Hades was one of them, but Percy was extremely iffy with him. Sure, it seemed easy to accuse Hades. Percy knew that Hades bore a resentment towards the rest of Olympus for his exile into the Underworld, and that Hades craved respect and admiration from his siblings, but to go to such lengths was not something Hades, a master of guile and cunning would do.

Hades doing anything would put a huge spotlight on his son, Nico, making Nico that much more liable to become a grease stain on the floor.

Also, maybe, just maybe, stealing a powerful weapon and pitting Olympians against each other would have the reverse effect Hades desired.

Ares was sticking out to Percy as if he had a neon sign around him that said Hey! It's me! As the God of War, Ares would benefit from a huge surge of power if there were to be bloodshed of any sort, let alone bloodshed on the scale of Olympians duking it out.

And, it only helped that Zeus and Poseidon were arguably two of the most powerful and influential gods, so a battle between them would all but promise unprecedented destruction.

The only flaw Percy found with this theory was that Ares lacked the wit to devise such a plan. There was no way in hell Ares would be able to find a demigod daring enough to steal the bolt (gods can't steal each other's symbols of power) and despite his simplistic behavior, Percy highly doubted Ares would go to such lengths "just cause".

No, Percy thought, if Ares was involved, he was probably nothing but a pawn for a higher power, but that begged the question: who was the higher power?

"Percy," Annabeth called, shaking him. "Hades, you've been staring off into space for, like, the last ten minutes. I'm surprised you haven't crashed into a car yet."

"Huh? Yeah, sorry, what's up?"

Nico groaned "I'm hungry."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Don't you have any food back there?"

"Nah," Grover said with a mouth full of something. "This backpack tastes good though."

"What the- stop eating that!" Percy yelled. He sighed. "Alright, alright. We'll take this exit and take this guy's wallet to go eat."

It was 7:49 anyway.

Percy pulled up and parked in front of a somewhat seedy looking diner.

Flo's Diner, it read.

The D, however, was not illuminated like the rear of the letters, and it was also flipped upside down and hanging loosely.

"Charming." Annabeth commented.

"Hey, beggars can't be choosers." Percy shot back as he held the door open for her.

As he walked inside, Hades suddenly didn't seem like much of a suspect.

Sitting at a booth with his feet on the table, filing his nails with a hunting knife, Ares greeted the demigods with a smirk. "Let's eat, punks."

AN: Hey guys! To those of you that watch the Flash or Supergirl or any DCTV, what would you think about me writing a Superflash (Barry x Kara) story? I've been playing around with the plot in my head for a while, and I'd love to write it out if any of you guys were interested. Anyways, 'till next time!

-Maroon


	14. Orthrus

_"There lay the bulk of giant Geryon dead mid his kine . . . Before him slain lay that most murderous hound Orthros, in furious might like Kerberos his brother-hound: a herdman lay thereby, Eurytion, all bedabbled with his blood."_

Percy watched his companions' faces go slack. Taking the lead, he respectfully bowed his head and slid into the booth. "Lord Ares."

Area grinned, and Percy noticed the fire behind his eyes grow a bit. "Ah, Percy Jackson. The demigod that has Olympus in an uproar."

Percy remained quiet as the rest of his questmates filed into the booth. He felt the compulsion of Ares' presence heighten his bloodlust. He took a deep breath to calm down, or else the frenzy he was feeling might just catapult him into beating the tar out of the next person to look at him funny.

Bloodlust was an interesting concept. It was, for the most part, what Percy considered to be the difference between murderers and heroes. It was what wiped away the last of one's humanity if not repressed well enough.

That being said, bloodlust was also integral to battle. Obviously enough, you had to want to kill the person in front of you more than they wanted to kill you, or you'd be the one getting run through with a sword rather than them.

Everything in moderation, Athena used to say.

"I do my best," Percy replied casually, shocking his companions who were doing their best to seem respectful to the War God.

Ares let out a booming laugh that made everyone else in the diner briefly look at their table. He gave Percy his dangerous grin again. "I like you, kid. You got spunk. That's to be expected, I suppose, given your old man."

"His old man?" Nico asked abruptly.

Ares turned to him, his grin fading and turning into a grimace. "Hey, kid, zip it. The grown ups are talking here. Regardless, I'm surprised. You didn't even tell your little posse your parentage?"

"I want my achievements and feats to be my own," Percy lied convincingly.

Ares gave him a small nod of respect. "Making your own legacy, I get that. Hell, I respect it. If anyone knows about growing up under a huge shadow your pops casts, it's me."

Growing up under a shadow? Percy replayed that line in his head a few times.

Suddenly, Ares being behind this seemed more plausible. Percy could see the motive now- after being under his father's shadow for a millennia, Ares made a desperate gamble in order to get the respect he thought he deserved.

"Hey, let's get some grub, huh?" Ares said as he looked around. His eyes landed on a waitress. "Hey, bitch, we're ready to order!"

"Y-yes sir." She said as she shakily took out her notepad.

"Let's get, uh, I'm thinking 10 orders of fries and a couple dozen burgers. Throw in a soda or two." Ares listed off. "You kids want anything? It's on me."

"Yeah, I'll take the burger and fries as well. Strawberry shake sounds good." Percy added.

Percy also ordered for Annabeth, Nico, and Grover, who were still paralyzed at being so close to an Olympian.

Percy could understand that. After all, Ares was exuding a pretty intense _I will kill you_ vibe.

After the food arrived, Ares dug in. Percy calmly ate his burger, and Ares took a break from inhaling his food to speak.

"I'm gonna cut to the chase, Percy. I need your help." He said, wiping some ketchup off of his face.

"I would be honored to help an Olympian." Percy replied politely.

"Heh. Good kid." Ares muttered.

"But," Percy countered. "I would like something in return. Gods aren't allowed to just interfere with mortals right? There has to be a deal."

"Not necessarily," Ares shifted. He nodded at Percy. "Name your terms."

Percy thought for a moment before speaking. "Lord Ares, I would like to have your blessing in battle so that I can learn to use weapons faster and wield them better."

Ares laughed for a moment. "That's it? Deal. Hell, I'll do you one better. I know the truth, Perseus. I'm a part of your plan. I'll tell you something Zoe isn't had the stomach to tell you yet."

Percy's jaw opened slightly. Part of his plan? Hades. Any theory Percy may have had about Ares being the culprit behind this seemed very faulty all of a sudden.

Ares chuckled, sipping his soda. "I know what's going through that hyperactive mind of yours. I didn't do it. Honest to Zeus- I just need a favor. Plus, I wanted to be the one to tell you. So, do we have a deal?"

He held out his hand.

Percy mentally shrugged. If he trusted Ares enough to keep him in the loop with Zoe back in the day, he could trust him now. He shook it.

"Alright," Ares waved a hand, and the empty plates disappeared. "Let's talk business."

"I'm game." Percy replied.

"I'm gonna be brutally honest, here, kid." Ares started. "This is a tough one. Just kidding."

"Well, what is it?"

"I was on a date, and I left my wallet at the place we went. I need you to go get it." Ares said. "Sound easy enough?"

Percy stared at him for a moment, before realized why he couldn't go. If Ares went on a date, he probably went on a date with Aphrodite. And if he went with Aphrodite, her _husband_ Hephaestus probably wasn't very happy. And if he wasn't happy...well…

"Yeah," Percy agreed hastily. "Piece of cake."

"I'm glad you think so. Go to this address, and you'll know it's my wallet when you see it. And also- get ready for a fight." Ares added. "And I mean you, Perseus. Any of these other weaklings would be decimated in a second. Good luck!"

He snapped his fingers and they were all back in the car, the radio blaring rock music and the tank completely full.

"What was that?" Nico asked, voicing the thoughts of the whole group.

"An Olympian asked used to do him a favor, and, as I don't want to end up a grease spot the floor, I agreed."

"No, no. We want to know about the rest of it!" Grover stressed. "Who is Zoe?"

"Zoe is my teacher," Percy replied instantly, having thought of the excuse long ago. He looked at Annabeth. "That's why I haven't been to camp a lot. I'm being mentored by a goddess."

Everyone's jaws simultaneously dropped.

"A...a goddess?" Nico found his voice first. "You're being trained by a goddess?"

"Yep." Percy affirmed. "She's a minor one, so you probably don't know her, but she assists Lady Artemis with the Hunt."

"Those are the people that my sister went with." Nico said sadly. Percy noticed the shadows from the road waved for a moment.

Changing the subject, Percy tried to talk to them about where they were going. "So, this address that Lord Ares gave me leads to a park. Not like a state park, but a kid park. With slides and swings and a jungle gym."

Annabeth looked at him weirdly. "Why would a god be at a kids park?"

Percy shrugged. The better question was why would two gods be at a kids park together?

Finding the park was easy enough. Percy pulled into an open parking spot by the swingset and took the keys out of the ignition. "Alright, guys. Keep your eyes peeled."

As they exited the car, Percy instantly spotted Ares' wallet. It was sort of hard to miss, considering it had a glowing Ω on it. It was currently in the hands of a small boy, who was playing with it as if it were an airplane.

"Hey, kid." Percy said kindly as he walked up to the boy and knelt. "That wallet belongs to a friend of mine. Can I have it so that I can give it back to him?"

The boy's face lit up. "You know Papa too?"

"Papa?" Percy repeated with a confused expression.

Just then, the boy's mother walked over. She picked him up, and made a _tsk_ noise as she took the wallet. Her eyes met Percy's. "Looks like he left his wallet again."

"Uh...yeah. I can take it back to him. That's actually why he sent me here."

The woman smiled and handed it to him.

Percy's brain had been trying to analyze the woman since he met her, and so far, he was drawing a blank. There wasn't anything that jumped out at him. No glow, or charmspeak. Sure, the woman was pretty but Percy doubted she was Aphrodite.

"Send Matthew my love." She said, as she ruffled the boy's hair. "And tell him to come home soon so Thomas doesn't miss him."

Matthew? Percy wondered bewilderedly. As he looked closer at the kid, he noticed that he bore a slight resemblance to Ares.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Percy asked abruptly.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" The woman asked. "I'm Matthew's wife. This little guy right here is our son, Drew Deimos. I don't know why Matthew insisted his middle name be Deimos, but his middle name is Ares so it could be a family thing."

"Yeah, it could be." Percy agreed.

Matthew Ares? From what Percy could glean, this little kid was Ares' son. What he couldn't understand is why Ares had taken on a mortal counterpart to actually be a family. Not many, if any gods or goddesses did that, if Percy remembered correctly.

Especially not gods like Ares and Apollo. They prided themselves on hooking with many, many different women. So why would Ares go to the trouble of supporting this family?

Before he could think any longer, the ground next to them split open.

Remembering Ares' warning, Percy stepped in front of the woman holding Drew. "You need to go. Now."

She didn't linger, sprinting towards her car.

Percy was forced to cover his eyes as an enormous shape jumped out of the split and landed, causing dust to go flying everywhere.

"Hm...a demigod. You are not the kin of Ares." He heard a deep voice rumble.

Percy strained to see past the dust. He could vaguely make out the shape of a large, dog like body. The only difference was that this dog seemed to be easily 10 feet tall. His jaw dropped when two heads came shooting forward from the dust until they were inches away from his.

As Percy gazed into 2 sets of blood red eyes, he felt, for the first time since the Minotaur, uncertainty that he would survive.

"I am Orthrus, son of Echidna and Typhon," Orthrus growled out as the dust settled, a giant diamondback snake protruding from his back. "But you already were aware of that, right, Perseus?"

Percy swallowed nervously. His danger gauge was skyrocketing into the you're screwed portion.

"Oh, yes, Perseus. I do not forget. You slew me many years ago, and I have been biding my time. Granted, I was here to kill the spawn of Ares, but this is much better. You look so weak."

"Enough talk," Perseus called out as he rushed towards Orthrus. Orthrus chuckled, and the snake tail came out and rammed Percy in the chest, stopping him in his tracks.

Percy gasped out in pain as he felt a few of his ribs crack. Orthrus' tail wrapped around him a few times, and he felt more of his bones crack under the heavy force. "So weak."

Orthrus slammed Percy down onto the ground and leapt onto him. Percy cried out as blood began seeping out of his mouth.

Through the haze of pain, Percy all but guessed that his ribs were shattered, and one of them had punctured his lungs.

If he didn't have godly blood in him, Percy knew he'd be dead.

"I am going to slaughter you here, Perseus. And then, I am going to kill all of your friends and family, one by one." Orthrus taunted.

Normally, Percy wouldn't worry about his threat. His family was all immortal and so were his friends, but then he realized Orthrus meant Annabeth, Nico, and Grover.

All of a sudden, he felt himself being thrown backwards into a memory.

 **FLASHBACK:**

"There are three stages in the Games: strength, agility, and mind. Lord Zeus has decided to test you in strength and agility in a different form than usual for we do not have much time. You were tested on strength when you fought that man and freed those women." Melinoe explained. Pass these tests and you will become a full-fledged member of Olympus rather than just a god. It has already been decided by Lord Zeus that you will participate in the mind stage in the Games. There is usually more than one man in the strength stage, but we did not have a lot of time, so you shall pass the strength stage."

Perseus's expression hardened. "How do the games work?"

"There is one rule to the games." Melinoe said as they reached another door. "You can't help Astraea, another prospective citizen, while she is overcoming the strength stage, nor I when I overcome the agility stage. You can only participate when you are overcoming the mind stage."

"What's the first rule?" Perseus asked.

"Do not fail." Astraea said, appearing next to Perseus. She winked at him. "That is a one way portal to Hades."

"Do not use my father's name in such a manner. You will likely go to Elysium. You do know what that is, right?" Melinoe asked.

"Yes, I do, daughter of Hades. As much as I would love to taste your father's hospitality, I do not wish to do so right now. Let us get started." Perseus smirked.

"Once we enter, there is no going back. The only way out is at the end of the mind stage." Melinoe added as the three walked into a small hallway with another door in front of them. Her staff shortened to its sword form as green smoke swirled around it. Astraea opened the second door as well to an open, circular room with three fires burning in three different spots up against the wall. The door closed behind them. "Remember, you can not help Astraea . This is her challenge."

"But what if she… dies?" Perseus asked.

"Then the challenge is over and you move on." Astraea said, unphased at the idea of death.

The fires went out and three giant white wolves came out from corridors hidden behind the fires. The fires re-lit once the wolves were out of the corridors. Melinoe and Perseus stood to the side as Astraea approached the three giant wolves. She took out a sword and began to fight.

The first wolf launched itself at her. She ducked and stabbed it's underbelly.

"Nice," Perseus commented.

It got back up easily, and jumped on her shoulder. She punched it's snout, knocking it to the ground unconscious. The other two wolves advanced on her. They circled around her, one to the left, one to the right. The one on the left went to pounce, and Astraea ducked and rolled to the side. The wolf on the right ran toward Astraea and she struck it with the hilt of her sword. It fell, but was not down for good. By then, the second wolf had come up behind Astraea and pounced on her back. She reached up and grabbed the wolf, throwing it down in front of her. The third wolf got up slowly, and Astraea let it come at her. It ran at her and when it was close enough, Astraea dropped to a knee and stuck her other leg out, tripping the wolf. After that, all of the wolves were done with the fight and the fires went out again. The three wolves slowly walked back down their separate corridors and the fire lit itself again.

"Now what?" Perseus asked as the floor opened up beneath them. He levitated as Melinoe made herself and Astraea disappear. "Over here is a cliff that you can stand on while you wait." Melinoe said from a few feet below Perseus, Astraea next to her.

Perseus went down to the cliff.

"Want to give me some light?" Melinoe asked. They were in a dark abyss that seemed to be bottomless.

Perseus nodded. He held up his hand and an orb of light shot out and illuminated everything within a few yards. They were able to see multiple cliffs along the sides and a long serpent on one of the cliffs.

The serpent "climbed" the cliffs, getting closer to Melinoe. Melinoe began to jump from cliff to cliff, getting closer to the serpent.

She pulled out her sword and began to fight the serpent. It slithered away from most of her strikes but she kept up with it and dodged all of it's attacks. As the serpent lunged at her, Melinoe jumped up, putting her hands on it's head and launching herself onto it's back. She stabbed the serpent's neck with her sword and pulled it out as the serpent reared back from the pain.

Melinoe jumped off the serpent's back to a nearby cliff. The serpent turned to her and breathed fire. She quickly rolled to the side. Melinoe jumped to a higher cliff and when the serpent opened its mouth to breath fire again, she threw a dagger down it's throat and it collapsed into the abyss.

Melinoe then flew to the cliff where Astraea and Perseus were watching. "The next doorway is at the bottom. It is not as deep once you finish the challenge." Melinoe said. She made herself and Astraea disappear.

Perseus went to the bottom where he found Melinoe and Astraea , and they appeared in an open room with two giant stone men holding stone hammers. There was a door behind the second stone giant.

Perseus walked up to the first statue. The stone giant in front of Perseus shifted and spoke. "If my opposite is given free, you may never know me. If given effort, you may. What am I?"

"Riddles?" Perseus asked, excited. As a son of Athena, this was his bread and butter. "Umm. Opposite given free, given effort I may know you." He repeated to himself. "Oh, you're failure."

The stone giant crumbled to debris at the correct answer. Perseus stepped in front of the second stone giant. It also shifted and spoke. "I am worthy but disregarded. My land is strange yet home. Who am I?"

"My uncle," He seemed very surprised by the idea, but it came out nonetheless. "Hades." Perseus said.

The stone giant crumbled to debris. "Wow. You got that right the first time." Melinoe said, impressed. "It took your mother two tries to get it right."

"Well, I'm not my mother." He said plainly, but was secretly amazed that he'd beaten his mother at something.

"Well, you passed the challenge. All that is left is for you to be tested in agility and you will be a citizen of Olympus." Melinoe said as they walked to the door and appeared outside.

"You can not use your powers to help you pass the challenge. I did not use mine when I was doing my challenge." Melinoe said as she led Perseus towards the final stage of the games with Astraea following. "Basically, you will have the entire army of Olympus shoot arrows at you."

"Cake. Is there a limit to how much I can be hit though?" Perseus asked.

"Each guard will fire twice. And they will fire randomly. There may be five arrows coming at you from different directions at times and one at others." Melinoe said

"Alright." Perseus stretched.

The three walked the guards saw them, they stopped their sparring and got a bow and two arrows each from the racks and assembled themselves on one side of the courtyard-like area they were in. Astraea moved to the side and Melinoe showed Perseus where to stand before she joined her.

"Are you ready?" Melinoe asked from the side.

"One second." Perseus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes. "Bring it."

"Remember, you can not use your powers." Melinoe reminded him.

"Begin!" Melinoe told the guards. They began firing at Perseus, high and low, sometimes five at a time, sometimes one. Perseus dodged all of them.

Perseus jumped up and down, spryly avoiding each arrow that was shot towards him.

Melinoe noticed, but did not say anything. The guards went back to their sparring.

"Well done. You are now a citizen of Olympus." Melinoe said. "I hope you never need to use this, but…"

She touched Perseus' shoulder briefly, and it glowed black. "A gift from me, to you, son of Athena."

 **Flashback Ends-**

Orthrus went flying off of Percy, and Percy was levitating off the ground. Slowly, a black shroud began to form around him.

"Oh yeah," Percy smirked as the shroud thickened. "Let's party."

For Reference:

 **(1)- Melinoe was a daughter of Hades in Greek Mythology, and was not someone whose attention you would want to draw. In the Orphic hymns, she brings terror at night to mortals by taking strange forms, and could drive mortals insane. The only reason for a hymn mentioning her, is to placate her, by showing that her nature is known and recognized, so averting the harm she is capable of causing if she wanted to educate you herself.**

 **(2)- Astraea was the goddess of innocence in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Astraeus, god of dusk, and Eos, goddess of dawn. Her name meant "star-maiden" and she was on the earth alongside humans during the Golden Age of Man. When the Iron Age dawned, bringing along misery and wickedness, Astraea abandoned the earth and went to the skies where she transformed into the constellation Virgo.**


End file.
